Editor’s Note: A Welcome to Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) Members = Bienvenue aux membres de l’Association canadienne d’études du travail et du syndicalisme (Acets) - Cadigan, Sean; Kealey, Gregory S. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
CAWLS is joining the Canadian Committee on Labour History family. The journal is now co-published by CCLH and Athabasca University Press, in affiliation with CAWLS.

Another Politics: Talking across Today’s Transformative Movements - Cairns, James (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Another Politics: Talking across Today’s Transformative Movements," by Chris Dixon.

Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages in Marxism and Critical Race Theories - Camfield, David (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages in Marxism and Critical Race Theories," edited by Abigail Bakan and Enakshi Dua.

Wisdom, Justice, and Charity: Canadian Social Welfare Through the Life of Jane B. Wisdom, 1884–1975 - Campbell, Lara (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Wisdom, Justice, and Charity: Canadian Social Welfare Through the Life of Jane B. Wisdom, 1884–1975," by Suzanne Morton.

The Truck System in the Cape Breton Fishery: Philip Robin and Company in Chéticamp, 1843–1852 - Campbell, Robert (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Explores the economy of the Cape Breton fishery by examining the ledger books of Philip Robin and Company in the Acadian fishing community of Chéticamp in the mid-19th century. The research complements the work of Rosemary Ommer, who studied the Jersey firm's associated company that dominated the Bay of Chaleur region of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Concludes that the truck system used between the Acadians, who had returned to the area in the decades after their deportation by the British in 1750, and the firm was indicative of an integrated relationship. The finding contrasts sharply with the studies of Harold Innis and others, whose portrayal of the Newfoundland, Labrador and Maritime cod fishery often painted a much darker picture of exploitation and constrained local development.

L’impact de l’évaluation collective ou individuelle des performances sur les équipes de travail: le cas d’une enseigne de restauration rapide et commerciale - Castel, Davy; Triplet, Sarah; Monsellato, Pauline; Vallery, Gérard (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
L’impact du passage d’une évaluation collective à une évaluation individuelle de la performance, ou inversement, sur les équipes de travail et leur rendement est étudié en contexte réel au sein de deux équipes ayant récemment vécu le passage d’une évaluation collective à une évaluation individuelle pour l’une, et inversement pour l’autre. Si dans nos deux échantillons, l’évaluation individualisée s’accompagne d’une individualisation du rapport au travail, les effets sont plus contrastés en ce qui concerne le vécu individuel, la qualité des relations interpersonnelles et la performance. Lorsque, du fait des critères d’évaluation retenus, les contributions individuelles à la performance collective sont indétectables en l’absence d’évaluation individualisée, l’évaluation collective est associée à la suspicion et à une moindre performance en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle. À l’inverse, lorsque selon les critères retenus pour évaluer la performance les membres de l’équipe peuvent aisément s’entraider pour améliorer la performance collective, l’évaluation collective est mieux perçue et est associée à de meilleures relations interpersonnelles et une meilleure performance que l’évaluation individuelle. Alors que l’évaluation individuelle est généralement privilégiée dans les entreprises, cette étude apporte des résultats empiriques à l’appui des recherches qui postulent que l’évaluation collective des équipes de travail est susceptible de renforcer la performance globale, en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle de leurs membres, car elle favorise l’entraide et la régulation collective. Toutefois, ces résultats mettent en évidence que l’effet positif de l’évaluation collective en comparaison de l’évaluation individuelle n’est observé que lorsque les critères d’évaluation favorisent la régulation collective de la performance. Cette étude permet d’identifier ces deux éléments : 1- dans quel cas telle modalité d’évaluation semble préférable à telle autre; et 2- quels critères d’évaluation adopter pour favoriser les effets positifs de l’évaluation collective sur la performance engendrés par l’entraide et la régulation collective en cours d’activité.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

The Impact of Saskatchewan Federation of Labour on Future Constitutional Challenges to Restrictions on the Right to Strike - Cavalluzzo, Paul (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
My focus here will be on whether the decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan2 will give an impetus to the success of constitutional challenges to laws governing the right to strike. While Saskatchewan Federation of Labour dealt with restrictions on that right in essential services legislation, i.e. legislation that provided for "controlled" strikes, this paper will for the most part address other forms of "strike laws." Briefly, I believe that while the Supreme Court's decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is a welcome event in the evolution of labour relations in Canada, it is unlikely to revolutionize our labour relations regime. –From author's introduction

Equality Deferred: Sex Discrimination and British Columbia’s Human Rights State, 1953–1984 - Chambers, Lori (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Equality Deferred: Sex Discrimination and British Columbia’s Human Rights State, 1953–1984," by Dominique Clément.

Little “Red Scares”: Anti-Communism and Political Repression in the United States, 1921–1946 - Chamedes, Giuliana (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Little 'Red Scares': Anti-Communism and Political Repression in the United States, 1921–1946," edited by Robert Justin Goldstein.

Parcours de travail aux marges de l'emploi - Récits du salariat domestique, Québec, deuxième moitié du XXe siècle - Charron, Catherine (Université Laval, 2015)
Cette thèse porte sur les figures contemporaines du salariat domestique ainsi que les principales évolutions de ce secteur d’activités dans la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle à Québec. Les récits de vie d’une trentaine de femmes ayant expérimenté diverses formes de travail domestique rémunéré constituent la base empirique de cette étude. Durant cette période historique marquée par l’accroissement spectaculaire de la main-d’œuvre féminine, de même que par le déclin du fordisme et la polarisation du marché du travail, le secteur domestique se diversifie. Les nouvelles formes de service domestique s’inscrivent dans la continuité historique ― notamment en regard de la personnalisation et de la naturalisation du rapport de travail, qui ont maintenu ce secteur à l’écart de la norme salariale depuis le XIXe siècle ―, tout en participant pleinement à la construction de nouveaux régimes d’inégalités de classe, de race et de genre autour de la division du travail dans la société québécoise contemporaine. Les récits de vie témoignent de l’indissociabilité des formes rémunérées et non rémunérées de travail domestique, et de leur caractère structurant dans la construction du rapport des femmes de milieux populaires au travail, à l’emploi et à la famille. De l’apprentissage du service domestique comme mode de socialisation des filles à la permanence domestique assurée par les femmes à toutes les étapes de leur vie familiale, les réseaux féminins familiaux et communautaires tissent la toile de toute une économie des échanges domestiques, sur un continuum entre entraide et emploi. Au cours des dernières décennies du XXe siècle, divers mécanismes se mettent en branle pour créer un bassin de main-d’œuvre domestique, dont certains sont directement liés à l’institution patriarcale du mariage, et concernent les femmes divorcées ou celles qui ont connu une longue absence du marché du travail. L’univers des petits boulots domestiques apparaît comme une sorte d’archipel où sont refoulées des femmes exclues du marché de l’emploi formel. Au sein de cette nébuleuse des emplois domestiques, les dynamiques de professionnalisation, d’institutionnalisation et de segmentation s’articulent autour de la frontière entre service et servitude, laquelle nourrit les pratiques et les représentations dans ces métiers où l’héritage ancillaire fait figure de spectre.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/442640565.pdf

Labour Relations Policy and Practice, and Regulation of the Right to Strike in the Broader Public Sector: The Implications of Saskatchewan Federation of Labor - Chaykowski, Richard P. (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
This paper considers some of the implications of the Supreme Court of Canada's watershed judgment in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, which recognized a constitutional right to strike under the Charter, for labour relations policy and practice in the broader public sector. The author notes that while the right to strike has been a key element of modern industrial relations policy, restrictions on that right have been deemed to be justified in respect of "essential " public services. Despite a marked decrease in strike activity in recent decades across all sectors of the economy, the author finds that strikes remain a significant feature of industrial relations in the broader public sector, particularly in the areas of health care, education and social services, where union density continues to be at high levels. In Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, the Supreme Court, though recognizing the fundamental importance of the right to strike to collective bargaining, did not preclude the possibility of restrictions on strikes in essential services if such restrictions were reasonably justified. In particular, the Court held, legislation that prohibited or limited strikes may survive Charter scrutiny if it provides for a "meaningful" alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The key question, then, is what sort of process will satisfy the requirements set out by the Court. In suggesting an answer to this question, the author reviews the study by Adell, Grant and Ponak on strikes in essential services, which concluded that the so-called "designation" model (which seeks to maintain the delivery of essential services during a strike or lockout) had more favourable industrial relations outcomes than either the "no-strike" model or the "unfettered strike" model. Nevertheless, the author points out, the practical implementation of the designation model could become more complex as a result of the decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour because of the larger number of issues to be decided and because of the requirement that the mechanism used to determine outcomes regarding essential services, classifications and employees be inclusive rather than unilateral.

Workers and Labour in a Globalised Capitalism: Contemporary Themes and Theoretical Issues - Chomsky, Aviva (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Workers and Labour in a Globalised Capitalism: Contemporary Themes and Theoretical Issues," edited by Maurizio Atzeni.

"Freedom" of Information in Canada: Implications for Historical Research - Clément, Dominique (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Discusses the problems faced by historical researchers in placing freedom-of-information requests. Although FOI legislation is on the books both federally and provincially, researchers must navigate significant barriers in obtaining information from government agencies and ministries, including censorship of documents, delays in responding, costly processing fees, and institutional cultures of secrecy. The author describes his variable experiences and makes suggestions for the submission of requests. A 2012 federal court ruling on FOI [Canada (Canadian Heritage) v. Bronskill] is also discussed. The conclusions lists recommendations for legislative reform and notes that the FOI debate has impacted on archival work and researchers' relationship with archives.

Les politiques de formation professionnelle dans les services à domicile. Influence de la structure de marché et du dialogue social en France et en Belgique - Cognard, Étienne (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Cet article étudie les politiques de formation professionnelle négociées par les partenaires sociaux des secteurs belge et français des services à domicile. Une attention particulière est accordée aux parcours professionnels offerts aux aides-ménagères à domicile. Ces parcours sont quasi-inexistants en Belgique, mais beaucoup mieux construits en France. Notre analyse comparative qualitative montre que deux principaux facteurs expliquent cette différence d’approche de la formation continue. Le premier est le type d’activités subsidiées par l’État dans le cadre des politiques d’emploi centrées sur le développement des services à domicile. La France se distingue de la Belgique par l’inclusion de l’aide à domicile et de la garde d’enfant. Dans la mesure où les prestataires « titres-services d’aide-ménagère » ne proposent pas ces deux types de services à domicile, ils n’ont pas intérêt à promouvoir des formations sectorielles qualifiantes. En France, les employeurs des services à la personne ont soutenu la mise en oeuvre de dispositifs sectoriels certifiant ou diplômant vers l’aide à domicile et la garde d’enfant, deux évolutions possibles pour les aides-ménagères. Le second facteur est la structure du dialogue social sectoriel. En Belgique, la concentration des aides-ménagères titres-services dans une seule commission paritaire spécifique rend plus difficile la construction de parcours professionnels par les partenaires sociaux sectoriels. En France, la concurrence économique et politique entre les trois branches des associations, entreprises et particuliers-employeurs stimulent, au contraire, la volonté des partenaires sociaux, employeurs en tête, de développer des politiques sectorielles cohérentes. L’effet pervers de cette concurrence est, toutefois, la réticence à organiser des mobilités interbranches.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Global Unions, Local Power: The New Spirit of Transnational Labor Organizing - Collombat, Thomas (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Global Unions, Local Power: The New Spirit of Transnational Labor Organizing," by Jamie K. McCallum.

Le syndicalisme portugais et l’austérité : entre la force des protestations et la fragilité des alliances - Costa, Hermes Augusto (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
L’adoption de mesures d’austérité pour surmonter la crise des dettes souveraines de ces dernières années a accentué la fragilité des syndicats en tant qu’institutions, en mettant aussi à l’épreuve leur capacité de résistance en tant que mouvements. Il n’en demeure pas moins que les syndicats ont cherché à réagir, en s’insurgeant contre les politiques d’austérité. Toutefois, le syndicalisme demeure «orgueilleusement seul», touché par des divisions internes et influencé par des tendances partisanes, semblant dès lors peu enclin à former des alliances avec d’autres groupes et mouvements. Ces derniers, pourtant, partagent souvent des préoccupations semblables à celles des syndicats (la lutte contre la précarité au travail en constituant le meilleur exemple). Dans la première partie de l’article, nous synthétisons quelques-unes des mesures d’austérité, décrivons brièvement les deux principales confédérations syndicales portugaises ainsi que certains acteurs socioprofessionnels, et analysons leurs discours face à la crise. Dans la seconde partie, nous abordons les caractéristiques et les moments principaux des réactions syndicales et de la protestation sociale plus ample face à l’austérité. Finalement, nous identifions certains défis externes et internes auxquels le syndicalisme est confronté au Portugal. D’une part, les syndicats doivent résister aux pressions externes dictées par les politiques d’austérité; d’autre part, ils doivent adopter une action proactive «à partir de l’intérieur», en s’ouvrant à de nouveaux publics (travailleurs précaires non syndiqués, fortement touchés par la crise et l’austérité) et, par conséquent, à de nouvelles formes de protestation sociale. La création d’un syndicat dans le secteur de la musique, du spectacle et de l’audiovisuel et la lutte dans un centre d’appels dans le secteur de la santé sont, à cet égard, deux défis à l’autonomie et à la rénovation des pratiques syndicales, et elles constituent, peut-être, la voie d’un «syndicalisme de travailleurs précaires», inexistant jusqu’à présent.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Ontario Boys: Masculinity and the Idea of Boyhood in Postwar Ontario - Coulter, Natalie (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Ontario Boys: Masculinity and the Idea of Boyhood in Postwar Ontario," by Christopher Greig.

Three Essays on Legal Issues Impacting the Employment Relationship in Canada - Curran, Bruce John (University of Toronto, 2015)
The first of three papers helps resolve the substantial debate about the impact of Honda v. Keays, a 2008 Supreme Court of Canada decision modifying the principles for compensating employees for improper employer conduct during dismissal (called “moral damages”). I performed content analysis on all relevant Canadian cases in the four years after Honda and an equivalent period before Honda and then used a tobit model to test legal scholars’ and lawyers’ predictions. I find that moral damages are less probable after Honda. Furthermore, the size of awards is smaller in those cases where moral damages are granted, partly because certain levels of employer misconduct now produce lower damages. However, I also find that, since Honda, high levels of mental distress are compensated more richly. The second paper is motivated by the absence of recent studies that investigate delay in grievance arbitration, despite increasing concerns being voiced about the issue. I performed content analysis on a random sample of about 400 Ontario arbitration awards, and then used a proportional hazards model to examine the extent of delay and its determinants. Consistent with common perception, the results suggest that delay has become a worse problem over the past two decades. I find that certain legalistic factors and the expanded jurisdiction of arbitrators over specific types of issues are associated with delay. The results also show that certain dispute resolution procedures are related to decreased delay, and this suggests some practical solutions. Prompted by a recent series of Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions on freedom of association (FOA) in the labour context, the third paper critically examines the Canadian jurisprudence. The state of this law in Canada has been roundly criticized by various prominent labour law academics. This paper relies on Sheldon Leader’s theory of FOA to argue that the SCC should have interpreted s. 2(d) of the Charter as protecting collective bargaining and striking as independent rights, rather than as rights necessary for the realization of the FOA. Having done so would have yielded jurisprudence that was more consistent and coherent.

Les 70 ans de RI/IR = RI/IR celebrates its 70th year - D’Amours, Martine (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-up of Britain - Davis, Madeleine (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-up of Britain," by Wade Matthews.

La relation entre l'intensité perçue d'utilisation de la messagerie électronique et la qualité de la relation hiérarchique - de La Rupelle, Géraldine; Guthrie, Cameron; Kalika, Michel (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Stress, conflits, surcharge, pression et contrôle, mais aussi gain de temps, motivation, accessibilité… sont autant de mots souvent prononcés à l’évocation de la messagerie électronique, tout particulièrement lorsqu’elle est associée aux relations hiérarchiques. Bien que les chercheurs et praticiens reconnaissent les effets du média sur la relation hiérarchique, la recherche académique peine à expliquer la nature de leur relation ainsi que les variables explicatives de cette même relation. Visant à répondre à ces questions, la problématique centrale de notre étude consiste à examiner la relation entre l’utilisation de la messagerie électronique et la qualité de la relation hiérarchique en mettant l’accent sur trois variables médiatrices : la reconnaissance, le contrôle et l’accessibilité. L’étude empirique a été réalisée au sein d’une banque de réseau française. Une étude qualitative exploratoire a contribué à la construction d’échelles de mesure utilisées ensuite dans un dispositif de recherche quantitatif : 478 questionnaires valides ont permis une analyse du modèle par la méthode des équations structurelles. Les résultats révèlent que l’intensité perçue d’utilisation du média est liée positivement à la qualité de la relation hiérarchique lorsque la relation est considérée isolément des variables médiatrices. En revanche, lorsque nous traitons le modèle dans son ensemble — en introduisant les variables médiatrices de reconnaissance, contrôle et accessibilité — la relation directe entre utilisation de la messagerie électronique et qualité de la relation hiérarchique n’est plus validée. La reconnaissance et le contrôle sont des mécanismes explicatifs de cette relation, tandis que l’accessibilité n’explique que partiellement la relation entre messagerie électronique et qualité de la relation hiérarchique. Outre les apports méthodologiques que procure la construction du modèle et celle des échelles de mesure, la présente recherche vise à fournir des pistes pour une amélioration des pratiques de communication électronique au sein de la dyade supérieur hiérarchique/subordonné.
Keywords: BANK employees; Communication électronique; DYADIC communication; EMAIL; Electronic communication; JOB stress; METHODOLOGY; Research; SOCIAL exchange; SUPERIOR-subordinate relationship; Telecommunication; comunicación electrónica; correo electrónico; courrier électronique; e-mail; industrial relations research; leader-member exchange theory (LMX); managerial relation; relación de gestión; relación líder-miembro (LMX); relation leader-membre (LMX en anglais); relation managériale; social exchange theory; teoría del intercambio social; théorie de l'échange social

Candidatures spontanées, réseaux et intermédiaires publics : quelle information et quels appariements sur le marché du travail français ? - de Larquier, Guillemette; Rieucau, Géraldine (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
À partir des enquêtes Emploi en continu (2005-2012) de l’INSEE, cet article analyse les appariements via les trois principaux canaux sur le marché du travail français : 1-candidatures spontanées; 2- réseaux; et 3- intermédiaires publics. Il étudie le mode d’accès à l’emploi des individus recrutés chaque trimestre, en tenant compte des canaux effectivement activés par ces individus lors de leur recherche d’emploi. En prenant appui sur le cadre théorique de l’économie des conventions, cet article soutient l’hypothèse que les trois canaux mènent à des appariements différents, car ils ne véhiculent pas le même type d’information sur les candidats, le format de l’information pouvant être écrit, raconté ou standardisé. Les candidatures spontanées arrivent sans médiation, ce qui engendre une forte incertitude sur la qualité des candidats. S’ils ont déjà travaillé dans l’entreprise ou qu’ils sont déjà en emploi et non chômeurs, ils ont davantage de chances d’avoir été recrutés via ce canal, plutôt que d’une autre façon. Ce canal valorise également les personnes qui publient une annonce, faisant connaître leurs compétences par le biais de ce support. Par ailleurs, l’information qui circule de proche en proche par les réseaux de relations épouse le format du récit, plutôt que celui, écrit, du CV. Les personnes étrangères ou françaises par acquisition trouvent plus souvent par ce canal que par un autre; il en va de même des personnes dont l’entourage immédiat est en emploi. À la différence des deux autres canaux, l’institution publique conduit vers l’emploi des personnes sans lien antérieur avec l’entreprise qui les embauche et est surtout utile aux inactifs et aux chômeurs. Les personnes embauchées via ce canal ont, davantage que les autres, répondu à une annonce, ce qui illustre une certaine standardisation des candidatures réalisée par l’intermédiaire public, standardisation qui paraît peu favorable aux étrangers ou aux Français par acquisition. Lorsque le taux de chômage régional augmente, la probabilité d’avoir trouvé son emploi par candidature spontanée, après avoir démarché ainsi, augmente; en revanche, cette probabilité diminue pour les deux autres canaux.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Designing Names: Requisite Identity Labour for Migrants' Be(long)ing in Ontario - Dechief, Diane Yvonne (University of Toronto, 2015)
This dissertation responds to the question of why people who immigrate to Ontario, Canada frequently choose to use their personal names in altered forms. Between May and December 2010, I engaged in semi-structured interviews with twenty-three people who, while living in Ontario, experienced name challenges ranging from persistent, repetitive misspellings and mispronunciations of their original names to cases of significant name alterations on residency documents, and even to situations of exclusion and discrimination. Drawing on critical perspectives from literature on identity and performativity, science and technology studies, race and immigration, affect, and onomastics (the study of names), I establish that name challenges are a form of "identity labour" required of many people who immigrate to Ontario. I also describe how individuals' identity labour changes over time. In response to name challenges, and the need to balance between their sometimes-simultaneous audiences, participants design their names for life in Ontario–by deciding which audiences to privilege, they choose where they want to belong, and how their names should be.

Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo - Dickson, Barbara (Dundurn, 2015)
An account of the women working in high-security, dangerous conditions making bombs in Toronto during the Second World War. What was it like to work in a Canadian Second World War munitions factory? What were working conditions like? Did anyone die? Just how closely did female employees embody the image of “Rosie the Riveter” so popularly advertised to promote factory work in war propaganda posters? How closely does the recent TV show, Bomb Girls, resemble the actual historical record of the day-to-day lives of bomb-making employees? Bomb Girls delivers a dramatic, personal, and detailed review of Canada’s largest fuse-filling munitions factory, situated in Scarborough, Ontario. First-hand accounts, technical records, photographic evidence, business documentation, and site maps all come together to offer a rare, complete account into the lives of over twenty-one thousand brave men and women who risked their lives daily while handling high explosives in a dedicated effort to help win the war. – Publisher's description

Sustainable Varieties of Capitalism? The Greening of Steel Work in Brazil and Germany - Doering, Heike; Evans, Claire; Stroud, Dean (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The aim of this article is to investigate the sustainability agenda and its implications for employment and managerial practices within different institutional contexts. The article uses the comparative capitalisms literature and, in particular, the Varieties of Capitalism framework to examine how multinational corporations (MNCs) can exploit different institutional contexts to achieve competitive advantages. We explore one multinational steel company’s i.e. SteelCo.AG varied responses to the emerging constraints of the sustainability agenda in Germany, as an example of a Coordinated Market Economy, and Brazil, as an example of a Hierarchical Market Economy. In particular, we focus on evidence concerning training, environmental practices and policies in the different company sites. We demonstrate how different institutional contexts favour different corporate strategies from an approach that exploits negative institutional complementarities, such as the “low-skill/low-cost trap,” to one that benefits from strong institutional coherence facilitating skills formation and innovation in response to environ-mental legislation. Our analysis argues for the importance of incorporating the green agenda as a marker of difference into the existing VoC framework. This allows for nuanced readings of unstable institutional complementarities in terms of operational, managerial and social innovation in different institutional contexts – with such analyses essential for understanding workers’ experiences of employment and work. Our contribution to the extant literature on the employment relationship, within the context of VoC analysis, therefore offers empirical material on understandings of employment relations within the HME category, as a new type within the VoC framework, through our discussion of a multinational’s activities in Brazil. This also allows us to focus on the way companies and other actors’ impact upon institutional frameworks and the distribution of power between different actors within particular contexts, thereby addressing recent discussions of the stability and homogeneity of institutional arrangements.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

A Law of Just Transitions?: Putting Labor Law to Work on Climate Change - Doorey, David J. (Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper, 2015)
Climate change will dramatically affect labor markets, but labor law scholars have mostly ignored it. Environmental law scholars are concerned with climate change, but they lack expertise in the complexities of regulating the labor relationship. Neither legal field is equipped to deal adequately with the challenge of governing the effects of climate change on labor markets, employers, and workers. This essay argues that a legal field organized around the concept of a ‘just transition’ to a lower carbon economy could bring together environmental law, labor law, and environment justice scholars in interesting and valuable ways. “Just transitions” is a concept originally developed by the North American labor movement, but has since been endorsed by important global institutions including the International Labour Organization and the U.N. Environmental Program. However, the prescriptions that would guide a policy of just transition have been under-explored in the legal literature. This paper marks an important early contribution to this challenge. It explores the factual and normative boundaries of a legal field called Just Transitions Law and questions whether such a field would offer any new, valuable insights into the challenge of regulating a response to climate change.

Revitalising Young Workers' Union Participation: A Comparative Analysis of Two Organisations in Quebec (canada): Revitalising Young Workers' Union Participation - Dufour-Poirier, Mélanie; Laroche, Mélanie (Industrial Relations Journal, 2015)
This paper examines how two trade union organisations in Quebec (Canada) manage to integrate issues of concern to young members (30 years old and under) and spur changes in their agenda, structures and practices. Between 2009 and 2014, 25 interviews were conducted in these two organisations, while 41 focus group discussions were held with more than 430 members. We contend that improving young members' feeling of belonging to the union, enhancing internal network density and implementing more participatory forms of democracy are key elements when it comes to increasing their participation. Our findings reveal that unions must dare to integrate young members, without seeking to mould them to fit with the values and practices they deem to be outdated. It means not only training young members to carry the necessary message to their peers but also allowing them to challenge the strategic orientations suggested therein.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287977903_Revitalising_young_workers'_union_participation_a_comparative_analysis_of_two_organisations_in_Quebec_Canada

Le syndicalisme en quête d’autonomie et de renouvellement en Europe: Études de cas : Grèce, Espagne, Portugal et France = Unionism in Search of Autonomy and Renewal in EuropeCase Studies: Greece, Spain, Portugal and France - Dufresne, Anne; Vandewattyne, Jean (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

The Future of the International Labour Organization in the Global Economy - Dumas, Patrice Martin (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Future of the International Labour Organization in the Global Economy," by Francis Maupain.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Jeunes et syndicalisme : une intégration réussie? Analyse comparative de deux organisations syndicales du Québec - Durand-Allard, Marc-Antoine (Université de Montréal, 2015)
Cette recherche dresse un portrait de la situation de la relève syndicale au Québec et des tentatives des organisations syndicales pour stimuler la participation de leurs membres de moins de 30 ans. Elle brosse d’abord un aperçu des habitudes sociales, des valeurs et des caractéristiques en emploi des jeunes. Elle nuance et recadre ensuite la problématique des jeunes en ce qui concerne l’identité collective qu’ils partagent instinctivement et les modalités de socialisation à l’interne façonnant leur participation. Cette recherche remet en question la fenêtre de recrutement estimée où les jeunes seraient en mesure d’entâmer leur participation dans les structures syndicales. Au demeurant, elle décrit l’ampleur des innovations syndicales destinées à stimuler la participation des jeunes et démystifie le mandat de l’une d’elle, les comités jeunes, qui peuvent agir à la fois comme porte-parole de leur organisation, comme la voix des jeunes membres et comme pépinière de la relève syndicale. Les données empiriques utilisées pour ce mémoire proviennent d’une vingtaine de groupes de discussion et de huit entretiens semi-dirigés (n=228), tenus dans deux organisations syndicales d’importance au Québec, disposant d’un comité jeunes et organisés par les chercheures d’un projet de recherche plus vaste sur la participation syndicale des jeunes. Nos résultats démontrent en premier lieu une identité collective construite autour de la précarité et des injustices perçues par les nouveaux travailleurs. L’âge ne serait pas significatif dans la construction de l’identité des jeunes qui semblent en phase de conquérir leur identité. En second lieu, le cadre strict de plusieurs modalités de socialisation avait un effet inhibiteur sur la participation, favorisait des relations d’échanges instrumentales et ne tenait pas compte de la sensibilité de cette nouvelle génération pour les interactions réciproques avec leurs représentants syndicaux. Nous avons aussi observé une utilisation limitée des nouvelles technologies, qui présentent des potentialités intéressantes en matière de transfert des connaissances de surcroît. Par ailleurs, nos résultats à l’égard de l’identité collective observée et de la durée du processus de socialisation soulèvent des questionnements sur la pertinence même des structures jeunes dans leurs paramètres actuels. Le parcours d’un jeune vers la militance syndicale apparaît plus tardif qu’escompté. Plus encore, la problématique jeunes met en lumière les tensions intrinsèques au mouvement syndical quant à la libre négociation sociale des intérêts défendus et du consensus interne nécessaire à leur légitimité.
https://doi.org/1866/11644

The Death and Life of American Labor: Toward a New Workers' Movement - Early, Steve (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Death and Life of American Labor: Toward a New Workers' Movement," by Stanley Aronowitz.

Capitalism on Trial: Section 98, the Communist Party of Canada and the Battle for Legality in the Interwar Period - Eaton, Campbell Scott (Simon Fraser University, 2015)
In 1919, the Canadian state enacted a law that criminalized the advocacy of radical politics. Section 98, as it became, was broad in its terminology, and carried a maximum punishment of twenty years imprisonment. In 1931, the state utilized the law against eight leaders of the Communist Party of Canada in an attempt to declare the organization to be illegal in Canada. The party, however, did not crumble under pressure. At trial, the accused were able to use the courtroom as a forum to protest the legality of the law; after the leaders were convicted, the party campaigned tirelessly for the release of their comrades, and for the repeal of Section 98. The party was successfully able to use its repression to forward its political agenda. This thesis explores how the party navigated Canada’s legal system in order to realize its political goals.

Class vs. Special Interest: Labor, Power, and Politics in the United States and Canada in the Twentieth Century - Eidlin, Barry (Politics & Society, 2015)
Why are US labor unions so weak? Union decline has had important consequences for politics, inequality, and social policy. Common explanations cite employment shifts, public opinion, labor laws, and differences in working class culture and organization. But comparing the United States with Canada challenges those explanations. After following US unionization rates for decades, Canadian rates diverged in the 1960s, and are now nearly three times higher. This divergence was due to different processes of working class political incorporation. In the United States, labor was incorporated as an interest group into a labor regime governed by a pluralist idea. In Canada, labor was incorporated as a class representative into a labor regime governed by a class idea. This led to a relatively stronger Canadian labor regime that better held employers in check and protected workers’ collective bargaining rights. As a result, union density stabilized in Canada while plummeting in the United States.
Publisher: SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA

How the Power of Canada’s Unions Helped Slow the Growth of Inequality. - Eidlin, Barry (USApp–American Politics and Policy Blog, 2015)
As has been the case in the U.S., the level of inequality in Canada has been on the rise since the 1980s, though at a slower rate. In new research, Barry Eidlin explores the reasons behind this divergence. He argues that one major factor which has received little attention is the power of Canada’s unions. He writes that because unions have been able to keep their role and legitimacy as defenders of working class interests, they have largely retained their power. He argues that in order to address inequality, we need to talk more about the growing divide between the wealthy and the working class, and the role that unions can play in decreasing that divide.
Publisher: The London School of Economics and Political Science

Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada - Eidlin, Barry (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada," by Ian Milligan.

The City and the Reds: Leftism, the Civic Politics of Order, and a Contested Modernity in Montreal, 1929-1947 - Elie, Christine (Queen's University, 2015)
From 1929 to 1947 the city of Montreal was renegotiating the boundaries of belonging. This dissertation examines the relationship between the left and the city during this period of crisis. Attempts to impose order on the chaos of the period – from deportation to an all-out war on leftism – serve as valuable fault-lines in notions of citizenship and exclusion. Reinterpreting Montreal’s history in this period through Zygmunt Bauman’s conception of cultural modernity, this study challenges notions of Montreal’s left as lacklustre. It also probes the contours of municipal and clerical definitions of ‘Montrealer.’ Complicating existing scholarship on Montreal’s left as compliant, this dissertation broadens the definition of leftism and recasts leftists as resistant to state and clerical repression – not as passive victims of Montreal’s Grande Noirceur but as active participants in modern planning for the future of the city. Modernity is the common thread that weaves this dissertation together. This study opens with the Catholic Church – exemplified here by the École sociale populaire – as it attempts to redefine belonging in opposition to the radical left. It turns to the City of Montreal’s attempts to purge ambivalence through mass deportation campaigns that treated the unemployed and the foreign-born as outsiders to modern Montreal. It then examines a series of vigorous left moments as case studies of repression and resistance: Albert Saint-Martin’s Université ouvirère, the sedition trials of the 1930s, the Canadian Youth Congress, the Padlock Act, the War Measures Act, and Henri Gagnon’s Ligue des vétérans sans-logis. In so doing, this study argues that Montreal’s leftists, though cast as enemies by the state, contested their status as ‘outsiders’ by engaging with modernity on their own terms. While there were crushing defeats, there were also significant victories. In these diffuse, linguistically diverse communities, we find Montreal’s left developing an alternative vision of the city. Moments of convergence between Montreal’s French-Canadian students and the Anglophone-dominated Communist Party of Canada bear witness to the power of the left to challenge state-sanctioned repression. These leftists saw themselves as part of a larger global movement for change, peace, and a better tomorrow – one which concentrated on challenging narrow notions of belonging in Montreal.

We’re Going to Run This City: Winnipeg’s Political Left after the General Strike - Epp-Koop, Stefan (University of Manitoba Press, 2015)
[E]xplores the dynamic political movement that came out of the largest labour protest in Canadian history and the ramifications for Winnipeg throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Few have studied the political Left at the municipal level—even though it is at this grassroots level that many people participate in political activity. Winnipeg was a deeply divided city. On one side, the conservative political descendants of the General Strike’s Citizen’s Committee of 1000 advocated for minimal government and low taxes. On the other side were the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Canada, two parties rooted in the city’s working class, though often in conflict with each other. The political strength of the Left would ebb and flow throughout the 1920s and 1930s but peaked in the mid-1930s when the ILP’s John Queen became mayor and the two parties on the Left combined to hold a majority of council seats. Astonishingly, Winnipeg was governed by a mayor who had served jail time for his role in the General Strike. –Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction – The second round –The reign of the furies – The revolutionary party on the parliamentary map – A victory for thoseengage in the struggle for better conditions – For freedom's cause, your bayonet's bright – A bombshell to many citizens – Conclusion.

The Right to Strike under Charter after Saskatchewan Federation of Labour: Applying the New Standard to Existing Regulation of Strike Activity - Etherington, Brian (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
This paper offers some predictions about the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada's landmark ruling in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour on the numerous limitations on the right to strike currently in effect in every Canadian jurisdiction. In the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour case the Court - strongly affirming its earlier decision in B.C. Health, in which it held that freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Charter encompasses the right to a "meaningful process of collective bargaining," and that "substantial interference" with that right will give rise to an infringement - declared that the right to strike is an essential component of a meaningful process of collect- ive bargaining, and as such is protected under the Charter. The author (who points out that this is not his first attempt at "reading constitutional tea leaves ") expresses surprise at the breadth of the majority's interpretation of what will constitute "substantial interference," as it is likely to result in many of the exist- ing schemes for regulation of strikes in essential services being held to violate section 2(d) and therefore to require justification under section 1 as a reason- able limit. Equally surprising, in the author's view, is the Court's section 1 analysis itself which suggests that the Court is prepared to undertake a detailed, searching review of "controlled strike" and "no-strike" schemes for designation of essential services and essential employees and the adequacy of any alterna- tive dispute resolution mechanism provided under such schemes as a substitute for the right to strike. Based on the Court's reasons in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, the author posits that numerous Charter challenges can be expected in the coming years against legislated restrictions on collective bargaining and strike activity, including the ad hoc "instant" back-to-work model to which the federal government has repeatedly resorted. Nevertheless, he cautions, given the considerable uneveness of the jurisprudential road which led from B.C. Health to Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, one should be wary of trying to predict the course of the Supreme Court's pronouncements.

Glimpsing Working-Class Childhood through the Laurier Palace Fire of 1927: The Ordinary, the Tragic, and the Historian's Gaze - Fahrni, Magda (The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 2015)
On January 9, 1927, a fire tore through the Laurier Palace, a cinema located in a French-speaking, working-class neighborhood on the east side of Montreal. Seventy-eight children died. This article uses the abundant documentation generated by the fire to explore a number of themes related to working-class childhood in early-twentieth-century Montreal: children’s autonomy versus parental surveillance and authority; the place of commercial leisure and petty consumption in the lives of working-class children; and contemporary understandings of such tragic accidents as the Laurier Palace fire. The article reflects on the promise and perils of what David Lowenthal has termed the “voyeuristic empathy” promoted by historians. Are historians of youth, what one scholar calls “latter-day child savers,” more likely than others to adopt a perspective reliant upon (or vulnerable to) such empathy?

Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable: Chilean Exiles in Ontario and Quebec, 1973–2010 - Falconer, Thirstan (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable: Chilean Exiles in Ontario and Quebec, 1973–2010," by Francis Peddie and Royden Leuwen.

The Origins of Right to Work: Anti-labor Democracy in Nineteenth-Century Chicago - Fast, Scott (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Origins of Right to Work: Anti-labor Democracy in Nineteenth-Century Chicago," by Cedric de Leon.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Gender Work: Feminism after Neoliberalism - Ferguson, Susan (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Gender Work: Feminism after Neoliberalism," by Robin Truth Goodman.

Unions Boost Democracy and Prosperity for All - Fernandez, Lynne (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Manitoba Office, 2015)
For a purportedly democratic country such as Canada, it is strange that so many of us seem to accept, unquestioningly, the absolute right of the employer to arbitrarily dictate the terms and conditions of our workplaces. This is just one example of what Ralph Nader is talking about when he says that, "When all is said and done, democracy is widely liked and widely unpracticed."

Autonomie collective et droit du travail. Mélanges en l’honneur du professeur Pierre Verge - Fontaine, Laurence Léa (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Autonomie collective et droit du travail. Mélanges en l’honneur du professeur Pierre Verge," edited by Dominic Roux.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Changes in Wage Inequality in Canada: An Interprovincial Perspective - Fortin, Nicole M.; Lemieux, Thomas (Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, 2015)
This paper uses the Canadian Labour Force Survey to understand why the level and dispersion of wages have evolved differently across provinces from 1997 to 2013. The faster increase in the level of wages and the decline in wage dispersion in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta are the starkest interprovincial differences. We find that they are accounted for by the growth in the extractive resources sectors, which benefited less‐educated and younger workers the most. Increases in minimum wages since 2005 are found to be the main reason why wages at the very bottom grew more than those in the middle of the distribution.

Rethinking Unions: Contradiction, Leadership, Narratives and the Case of UFCW Local 401 - Foster, Jason (Saint Mary's University, 2015)
Over the past 20 years, the Alberta-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 have revitalized their union through organizing diverse groups of workers in hard-to-organize occupations, increasing involvement in political and community matters and adopting innovative organizing and representation strategies. They have done so with a stable leadership that exhibits autocratic and populist tendencies. The apparent contradictions of autocratic structures and innovative reforms are difficult to explain using existing explanations of union renewal and concepts of union forms. This in-depth study examines Local 401 in an effort to explain the unexpected patterns. Using a variety of methods, including Critical Narrative Analysis, the study reveals that unions may be more fluid and dynamic than the existing literature acknowledges. The study concludes the business union-social union duality common in industrial relations theory needs to be replaced by a more flexible, more multi-layered conceptualization of union behaviour. Unions exhibit elements of both social and business unionism at the same time because they are organizations created at the intersection between structure and action and are always in flux. The study also highlights a possible third path for union renewal, coined “accidental revitalization”, where local-initiated renewal can occur without planned intention and within a context of stable local leadership. Third, the study explores the role narratives play in resolving apparent contradictions in union behaviour by constructing internal logics and how narratives contribute to the production and re-production of power dynamics within unions.

The Construction of Migrant Work and Workers by Alberta Legislators, 2000-2011 - Foster, Jason; Barnetson, Bob (Canadian Ethnic Studies, 2015)
This paper uses narrative analysis to explore how Alberta government Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) “constructed” migrant work and migrant workers in legislature and media statements between 2000 and 2011. Government MLAs asserted that migrant work (1) was economically necessary and (2) posed no threat to Canadian workers. Government MLAs also asserted that international migrant workers (3) had questionable occupational, linguistic or cultural skills and (4) caused negative social and economic impacts in Canada. Taken individually, these narratives appear contradictory, casting migrant work as good but migrant workers as bad. Viewed together, these narratives comprise an effort to dehumanize temporary and permanent international migrant workers. This (sometimes racialized) “othering” of migrant workers justifies migrant workers’ partial citizenship and suppresses criticism of their poor treatment.

The Dynamics of Union Responses to Migrant Workers in Canada - Foster, Jason; Taylor, Alison; Khan, Candy (Work, Employment and Society, 2015)
This study examines how five unions in the Canadian province of Alberta responded to a sudden influx of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), as part of Canadian employers’ increased use of migrant workers in the mid-2000s. The authors find three types of response to the new TFW members: resistive, facilitative and active. Furthermore, these responses were dynamic and changing over time. The different responses are best explained not by the unions’ institutional context, but by internal factors shaping each union’s response. Drawing upon the concept of referential unionisms, the study explores how unions’ self-identity shapes their responses to new challenges such as the influx of migrant workers.
Publisher: SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England

Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment - Frager, Ruth A. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment," by Gerald Tulchinsky.

Expressing Confidence in Unions in Quebec and the Other Canadian Provinces: Similarities and Contrasts in Findings - Frangi, Lorenzo; Hennebert, Marc-Antonin (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
This article examines changes in levels of confidence in unions and proposes an intra-national comparison between Quebec and the rest of Canada based on the analysis of the three most recent waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) database, of which Canada is part (i.e. 1990, 2000, 2006). After noting differences in the trends of confidence in unions in these two regions, we applied the same logistic regression model to both regions, based on the 2006 WVS wave, in order to bring out the determinants of the propensity of individuals to express confidence in unions. The results show both similarities and differences between the two regions. As for the similarities between Quebec and the rest of Canada, it should be noted that involvement in politics and the fact of being unionized had a positive effect on the respondents’ propensity to have confidence in unions whereas most of the socio-demographic variables had no significant effects. As for the differences, the fact of reporting a higher income had a significant negative impact in Quebec, but was not significant in the rest of Canada. The fact of supporting the NDP in the rest of Canada had a more structuring effect on the propensity of individuals to have confidence in unions than the fact of supporting the BQ in Quebec. Moreover, the greater the extent to which citizens in Quebec identified with left-leaning ideological positions, the more likely they were to have confidence in unions. Finally, the respondent’s level of education was not significant in the rest of Canada but, cetiris paribus, was highly significant and positively related to confidence in unions in Quebec.
Keywords: CANADIAN Labour Congress; CONFIDENCE; Canada; Canadá; Industrial relations; Labor Unions; NEW Democratic Party (Political party : Canada); Organizaciones sindicales; Public opinion; QUEBEC (Province); Quebec; Québec; Trade unions; confiance; confianza; industrial relations research; opinion publique; opinión pública; organisations syndicales

Silvertown: The Lost Story of a Strike That Shook London and Helped Launch the Labor Movement - Frank, Christopher (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Silvertown: The Lost Story of a Strike That Shook London and Helped Launch the Labor Movement," by John Tully.

A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys through Urban Britain - Freeman, Alan (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys through Urban Britain," by Owen Hatherley.

«Dialogue social» et variétés des capitalismes: une analyse de long terme - Gazier, Bernard; Boylaud, Olivier (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Cet article vise à tester sur longue période l’hypothèse de convergence des relations industrielles dans les pays développés. Prenant acte de la persistance du débat sur ce point, notamment du fait de la crise actuelle, mais aussi de la diversité des conceptions sous-jacentes, il propose de partir d’un objet de comparaison non prédéterminé par une orientation préalable : le « dialogue social ». Ce concept, utilisé notamment dans le cadre du Bureau international du Travail (BIT), reste toutefois assez flou et appelle une réélaboration. Nous ajoutons aux pratiques d’information, concertation et de négociations collectives, des pratiques moins souvent prises en compte : les pratiques du paritarisme de gestion, de la codétermination, ainsi que l’intervention de l’État, cette dernière pouvant renforcer ou, au contraire, contraindre le dialogue social. Se limitant, pour la partie empirique, à l’ensemble formé par les négociations collectives, les pratiques de codétermination et l’intervention de l’État, l’article examine l’évolution de 19 pays de l’OCDE pour six indicateurs de 1985 à 2011. Le choix est fait de ne pas pondérer a priori l’importance de chaque indicateur, et de procéder à une analyse de données en composantes principales suivie d’une classification par nuées dynamiques. Il en résulte cinq groupes de pays, groupes dotés d’une assez forte stabilité, dont on étudie les transformations au cours du temps. Enfin, les groupes de pays sont examinés sous l’angle des performances économiques et sociales, en retenant la croissance du PIB et l’évolution du taux de chômage. On retrouve alors, sur une base non contrainte par une orientation a priori, les groupes classiquement distingués par les analyses comparatives : les groupes « anglo-saxons », « continentaux », « nordiques » et « méditerranéens », ainsi qu’un dernier groupe composé de la Suisse et du Japon. L’article conclut à la persistance de la diversité au regard du « dialogue social », y compris pour la période récente marquée par la crise.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Still Working on the Edge: Building Decent Jobs from the Ground Up - Gellatly, Mary; Workers' Action Centre (Toronto) (Workers' Action Centre, 2015)
Building on previous research, Workers’ Action Centre members spent the past year identifying key problems workers are facing in the labour market and developing priorities for change. This report brings workers’ voices, experiences and recommendations to this conversation, contributing knowledge that will be essential to updating Ontario’s labour legislation from the ground up. –Website summary
OCLC: 911138960
Keywords: Labour laws and legislation; Ontario. Hours of labour; Ontario. Wages

Le temps de travail et travail du temps - Genin, Émilie (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Le temps de travail et travail du temps," edited by Sylvie Monchatre et Bernard Woehl.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Two Decades after Schmidt: Where Has Pension Law Been and Where Is It Going Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Gillese, Eileen E. (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
This paper takes a concise look at what the future might hold for pension law in Canada, by considering how it has developed in the past and where it stands today. Beginning with an overview of the Supreme Court of Canada's foundational decision in the Schmidt case, the author traces the evolution of what she sees as two distinct approaches to the resolution of pension disputes: the "classical" approach, and the "integrated" approach. The classical approach is both hierarchical and binary, in that if the governing pension legislation applies, its provisions prevail over the common law, while if the legislation does not apply, the court, in deciding the case, must choose whether to apply trust law principles or contract law principles. Under the integrated approach, by contrast, the court does not begin from the premise that a certain, unitary set of principles should be applied to decide the matter. Rather, it recognizes that pension disputes often involve the intersection of pension legislation, trust law and contract law, and that their resolution may properly be informed by a consideration of other areas of law as well as the underlying policy concerns. The author notes that the classical approach and the integrated approach both have advantages and disadvantages, and that both have a basis in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. The paper concludes by setting out the types of novel pension issues which may come before the courts in the coming decade, and illustrates how the determination of those issues may depend on which of the two rival approaches is adopted.

Négocier sous contrainte : les modalités d’appropriation du rôle de « partenaire social » par les représentants de la CGT - Giraud, Baptiste (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Cet article étudie les stratégies de négociation et de mobilisation des dirigeants confédéraux de la CGT à l’occasion de réformes gouvernementales de la protection sociale qui préfiguraient celles qui ont été engagées depuis 2008 en réponse à la “crise” économique. L’analyse de l’autonomie des syndicats dans la négociation de ces réformes doit être réinscrite dans un examen au plus long cours des transformations des formes et des conditions de possibilité de la lutte syndicale. L’étude des pratiques de ces dirigeants syndicaux permet, en particulier, de s’interroger sur les ressorts de leur enrôlement dans ces processus de négociation, ainsi que sur les effets et les dilemmes qu’implique cette action institutionnelle sur leur manière de contester les projets gouvernementaux. Leur engagement dans ces procédures de concertation n’a rien de mécanique ni de consensuel. Il est, d’abord, le fruit de leur affaiblissement politique et militant. Cette situation modifie leur perception des profits qu’ils peuvent retirer à réinvestir les manières d’être et les outils légitimes dans l’espace de la négociation. Elle les porte notamment à valoriser la production de contre-expertise et de contre-propositions pour justifier leur opposition aux projets gouvernementaux. L’investissement de ces modes d’action institutionnels n’exclut pas le recours à l’arme de l’action collective, mais il contribue à en modifier les usages. D’une part, ces dirigeants syndicaux s’imposent des limites dans leurs stratégies de mobilisation des salariés pour asseoir leur légitimité dans la négociation. D’autre part, ils doivent composer avec de multiples contraintes organisationnelles qui entravent leur capacité à mobiliser leurs adhérents au cours de ces négociations interprofessionnelles. Contre la tendance à opposer l’institutionnalisation des syndicats à leur capacité à entrer en conflit, l’étude des pratiques des dirigeants de la CGT met donc davantage en évidence les contraintes institutionnelles, politiques et organisationnelles qui influencent la manière dont s’articulent et se reconfigurent les usages syndicaux des outils de la négociation et de l’action collective.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Varieties of Capitalism Revisited: Current Debates and Possible Directions = Les Variétés du Capitalisme revisitées: débats actuels et avenues possibles - Gould, Anthony M.; Barry, Michael; Wilkinson, Adrian (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Crossing Borders: National and Theoretical - Goutor, David (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews and comments on several books including "Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider," by Satnam Virdee, "How Race is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts," by Natalia Molina, and "Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy," by David FitzGerald and David Cook-Martin.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

Bad Time Stories. Government-Union Conflicts and the Rhetoric of Legitimation Strategies - Grenier, Jean-Noël (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Bad Time Stories. Government-Union Conflicts and the Rhetoric of Legitimation Strategies," by Yonathan Reshef and Charles Kleim.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Sociologie des outils de gestion : introduction à l’analyse de l’instrumentation de gestion, Par Chiapello, Eve et Patrick Gilbert. Paris : Éditions La Découverte, 2013, 294 pages. ISBN 978-2-7071-5145-2 - Hallée, Yves (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Sociologie des outils de gestion : introduction à l’analyse de l’instrumentation de gestion," by Eve Chiapello and Patrick Gilbert.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation - Hamlin, Françoise N. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation," by Sekou M. Franklin.

Last Night Shift in Savar: The Story of the Spectrum Sweater Factory Collapse - Hanlon, Mary (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Last Night Shift in Savar: The Story of the Spectrum Sweater Factory Collapse," by Doug Miller.

Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism: Place, Women, and the Environment in Canada and Mexico - Harms, Patricia (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism: Place, Women, and the Environment in Canada and Mexico," by Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez.

Loyalty and Liberty: American Countersubversion from World War I to the McCarthy Era - Haverty-Stacke, Donna T. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Loyalty and Liberty: American Countersubversion from World War I to the McCarthy Era," by Alex Goodall.

Fires on the Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor Organizing on the Mexican Frontera - Healy, Teresa (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Fires on the Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor Organizing on the Mexican Frontera," by Rosemary Hennessey.

Sakatchewan Federation of Labor and Strikes in the Public Sector: Confusing Social Rights with Fundamental Ones - Heeman, Roy L. (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
It appears to me that there is an obligation on any court studying the constitutionality of a provision of law, first, to give a detailed examination of the specific provision of law it is studying, as well as the whole context of the right, before pronouncing on its consti- tutionality. It is the failure of the Supreme Court of Canada majority in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour1 to do so that has given rise to much commentary, with one prominent newspaper questioning the "shoddy reasoning," the "curiously selective research" and the "slapdash approach to precedent."'2 Indeed, it is this failure that gives rise to the question of what the decision actually decides.' The majority judgment can best be understood in light of its misplaced emulation of European law, which is quite different from ours, and its frequent references to the Committee on Freedom of Association of the ILO. Although the Committee is not a judicial body, the majority judgment elevates it to one, though making the interesting proviso that the Committee's decisions are "not strictly binding."'4 The problems with showing such deference to the Committee on Freedom of Association are well known, and I will touch on them only briefly. One has only to read the papers by Brian Langille as well as Sonia Regenbogen, both of whom have gone to great lengths to study the committees of the ILO, to be disabused of the notion that these "committees" are judicial bodies or that their decisions are in any way binding on our courts.5 Indeed, in the Fraser case, I was amazed when, approximately two months after the matter was en delibdri, the Supreme Court received a missive from one of the ILO committees telling the Court its views on how the decision should be rendered.6 I strenuously objected to this document on two grounds: (1) how did the ILO committee know, in a secret delibdri, that one side needed its help? and, (2) by what right was a non-party to the Supreme Court proceedings lobbying the Court after the hear- ing, an action which the Court would properly have forbidden a party from taking? What may be less well known and understood are the basic dif- ferences between European labour law and our own.' The European law is based on a system of "voluntarism," whereby employees are free to join or not to join a union. An article quoted by the Court in B.C. Health makes this clear (though the Court's reliance on the article is unfortunate, given that the article's authors are referring to Convention 98 of the ILO, which Canada has not even ratified):' In view of the fact that the voluntary nature of collective bargaining is a funda- mental aspect of the principles of freedom of association, collective bargaining

America's Assembly Line - Heron, Craig (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "America's Assembly Line," by David E. Nye.

Lunch-Bucket Lives: Remaking the Workers' City - Heron, Craig (Between the Lines, 2015)
Using Hamilton's local history to tell the wider story of the North American working-class, Lunch-Bucket Lives investigates how workers dealt with the profound changes in their lives between the 1890s and the 1930s, as wage-earners, family members, and participants in various social networks. Heron takes wage-earning as a central element in working-class life, but also looks beyond the workplace into the households and neighbourhoods - settlement patterns and housing, marriage, child care, domestic labour, public health, schooling, charity and social work, popular culture, gender identities, ethnicity and ethnic conflict, and politics in various forms - presenting a comprehensive view of working-class life in the first half of the twentieth century. –Publisher's description
Keywords: 19th century; 19th century. Working class; 20th century; 20th century. Social conditions. Working class; Hamilton; Ontario; Social conditions; Working class

“They Were Making Good Money, Just Ten Minutes from Home”: Proximity and Distance in the Plant Shutdown Stories of Northern Ontario Mill Workers - High, Steven C. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Working at the mill had been a family affair for generations of Sturgeon Falls’ mill workers, as young men followed their fathers, uncles, older brothers, and occasionally mothers, into the Northern Ontario mill – the town’s largest employer for more than a century. The mill’s workforce was overwhelmingly white and male, with a historic linguistic divide between largely English-speaking managers and mainly French-speaking production workers. This linguistic division of labour and the near total exclusion of Aboriginal people were remnants of industrial colonialism in the region. Within a year of the mill’s December 2002 closure, I began interviewing the former employees about their experiences and these interviews continued for the next two years. During that time, efforts to reopen the mill fizzled out and it was demolished by the departing company. Work-life oral histories offer us a way into the shifting sands of culture and economy in this former mill town. This article explores the shifting sense of temporal and spatial proximity or distance in the plant shutdown stories told by 37 former mill workers. Several dimensions of proximity are explored such as the temporal proximity of the interview to the events being recounted, the perceived social proximity that prevailed before the mill closing, the remembered physical proximity of the mill in the narrated lives of residents, and, now, after the mill’s closure, the spectre of forced relocation or distant daily commutes to new jobs in other towns and cities. For long-service workers, employment mobility or permanent relocation was understood to be a last resort. These interviews make clear that forced employment mobility was a core concern to everyone we interviewed, not just those who actually relocated or commuted to jobs found elsewhere.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915–1940 - Hinojosa, Felipe (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915–1940," by Michael Innis-Jiménez.

Minneapolis Madams: The Lost History of Prostitution on the Riverfront - Hinther, Rhonda L. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Minneapolis Madams: The Lost History of Prostitution on the Riverfront," by Penny A. Peterson.

Race, Food, and Borders: Situating Migrant Struggle in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia - Hjalmarson, Elise; Bunn, Robyn; Cohen, Amy; Terbasket, Edna; Gahman, Levi (Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2015)
Over the past century, the Okanagan Valley's social, economic, and physical landscape has been largely shaped by the region's agricultural industry. Within this landscape migrant farmworkers have an essential role, yet are rendered invisible and remain marginalized. This commentary explores migrants' struggle by looking at the intersections of colonialism, race, borders, and the local food economy. We begin with a historical examination of the racialized nature of the region's agricultural labor force, and also provide an overview of the local food economy. Following this, we outline Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and discuss how the SAWP places migrant laborers in positions of precarity, often resulting in worker isolation and superexploitation. We then turn to the social conditions migrant workers encounter upon arriving in the Okanagan Valley by describing the institutional discrimination they face, as well as the everyday prejudices and aggressions they endure due to their status of being labeled both "foreign" and "temporary." Next we provide a brief explanation of settler colonialism, the imposition of borders, and the common struggles shared by migrant workers and Aboriginal people. Finally, we offer some recommendations for change that would ameliorate some of the challenges migrant workers experience upon arriving in the Okanagan.
Keywords: Food Systems; Migrant Labor; Okanagan Valley; Racism; Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program; Settler Colonialism; Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Growing to One World: The Life of J. King Gordon - Hoffman, George (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Growing to One World: The Life of J. King Gordon," by Eileen R. Janzen.

Labour Relations and Human Resource Management in the Automotive Industry - Holmes, John (The Global Automotive Industry, 2015)
Given the difficulty generalizing across countries about industrial relations and human resource management practices, the discussion in this chapter is restricted to the United States and Canada. The chapter focuses on the continuity and change in North American auto industry labour relations. It traces the evolution of the post-war labour relations system in the North American automotive industry prior to 2000. It discusses the development of the archetypal Fordist system in the 1930s and 1940s, which produced a highly uniform pattern of labour relations across the auto industry in the United States and Canada. In the 1980s, Japanese automakers and their key suppliers introduced key elements of Japanese production methods (JPS) to North America. By 2012, not only had differences in bargaining outcomes narrowed between the United States and Canada but there was a new reality in which ‘union and non-union work in the auto industry have been rendered indistinguishable’.
Keywords: Fordist production; Japanese production methods; Lean Production; North American Automotive Labour Relations; bargaining outcomes; human resource management

The Winter of Discontent: Myth, Memory, History - Ikebe, Shannon (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Winter of Discontent: Myth, Memory, History," by Tara Martin Lopez.

The Left in British Columbia: A History of Struggle - Isitt, Benjamin (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Left in British Columbia: A History of Struggle," by Gordon Hak.

Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume I: Transnational Collaborations and Crosscurrents; Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume II: Canada – National and Transnational Contexts - Janovicek, Nancy (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the books, "Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume I: Transnational Collaborations and Crosscurrents," edited by Maureen Moynagh and Nancy Forestell, and "Documenting First Wave Feminisms, Volume II: Canada – National and Transnational Contexts," edited by Nancy Forestell and Maureen Moynagh.

“Columns of the House” and Proud Workers: Greek Immigrant Women in Vancouver, 1954-1975 - Kalogeropoulou, Maria (Simon Fraser University, 2015)
In this thesis, I study the experiences of eight first-generation Greek immigrant women who moved to Vancouver between 1954 and 1975 by listening to and contextualizing their oral life histories. Looking at their lives before they immigrated, I explore how these women’s gender experiences were very much shaped by religion, class, and rural vis-à=vis urban locations in Greece. I also demonstrate that many exercised agency in this patriarchal culture, and that they were part of the decision-making process that led to immigration in search of a better life. After they immigrated to Vancouver, these women played an active part in supporting their families’ wellbeing, and some also contributed outside the household, offering their assistance to Greek communal organizations. Differences in class and working careers resulted in different narratives about immigration experiences, although the ideal of the kali noikokyra (good housewife) was consistent in their perceptions of proper Greek womanhood. Middle-class and working-class women also had different attitudes towards charitable work, religion, and the Greek community organizations. Both, however, actively contributed to the survival and settlement of Greek immigrant families in Canada. Overall, this thesis examines how gender, class, ethnicity, and religion affected Greek women’s identities before and after they immigrated in postwar period, and how their experiences of immigration altered their perspectives on the place of women in Greek families.

Advancing Industrial Relations Theory: An Analytical Synthesis of British-American and Pluralist-Radical Ideas - Kaufman, Bruce E.; Gall, Gregor (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Prominent writers in industrial relations (IR) have concluded the field is in significant decline, partly because of a failed theory base. The theory problem is deepened because other writers conclude developing a theory foundation for industrial relations is neither possible nor desirable. We believe advancing IR theory is both needed and possible, and take up the challenge in this paper. A long-standing problem in theorizing industrial relations has been the lack of agreement on the field’s core analytical construct. However, in the last two decades writers have increasingly agreed the field is centred on the employment relationship. Another long-standing problem is that writers have theorized industrial relations using different theoretical frames of reference, including pluralist and radical-Marxist; different disciplinary perspectives, such as economics, sociology, history, and politics; and from different national traditions, such as British, French, and American. In this paper, we seek to advance IR theory and better integrate paradigms and national traditions. We do this by developing an analytical explanation for four core features of the employment relationship—generation of an economic surplus, cooperation-conflict dialectic, indeterminate nature of the employment contract, and asymmetric authority and power in the firm—using an integrative mix of ideas and concepts from the pluralist and radical-Marxist streams presented in a multi-part diagram constructed with marginalist tools from conventional economics. The diagram includes central IR system components, such as labour market, hierarchical firm, macro-economy, and nation state government. The model is used to explain the four features of the employment relationship and derive implications for IR theory and practice. Examples include the diagrammatic representation of the size and distribution of the economic surplus, a new analytical representation of labour exploitation, identification of labour supply conditions that encourage, respectively, cooperation versus conflict, and demonstration of how inequality of bargaining power in labour markets contributes to macroeconomic stagnation and unemployment.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

A Welcome to Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) Members = Bienvenue aux membres de l’Association canadienne d’études du travail et du syndicalisme (Acets) - Kealey, Gregory S.; Cadigan, Sean (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Announces that the journal is now a joint partnership of the Canadian Committee on Labour History with Athabaska University Press, in affiliation with the Canadian Association of Labour Studies.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

The Patriotic Consensus: Unity, Morale and the Second World War in Winnipeg - Keshen, Jeff (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Patriotic Consensus: Unity, Morale and the Second World War in Winnipeg," by Jody Perrun.

Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968 - Kiddle, Amelia M. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968," edited by Paul Gillingham and Benjamin T. Smith.

The Perils of Home: Race, Gender, and Labor on the Pacific Frontier - Kim, Jason Ulim (University of California, Berkeley, 2015)
In the early twentieth century, Chinese men and white women often worked in close proximity to each other in various intimate settings in the North American West— from the kitchens of upper class homes to the noisy cafés of the city. However, little has been said in the scholarship on the social and political significance of these encounters. Instead, this study centers on the different and connected ways in which intimacy shaped the North American West in the early twentieth century. As such, this work makes central and transparent the connections between the expansion of white women’s political and economic rights and efforts to exclude the Chinese in British Columbia and California. Thus, this study asks: How were changes in the status of white women and shifting notions of domesticity related to debates about Chinese labor and migration? Conversely, to what extent was the anti-Oriental movement and its calls for exclusionary measures informed and shaped by debates about gender roles? Last, how might a transnational analysis of these intersecting debates deepen our understanding of how such controversies shaped Vancouver and San Francisco as frontiers and gateways for Chinese labor migration and white settlement? If both Western Canada and the United States were primary sites for Asian labor migration and white settlement, did intimacy and affective labor play out differently in these two contexts?By using primary source documents to analyze two murder cases involving Chinese servants and two legislative efforts regarding affective labor in the distinct but connected contexts of Western Canada and the United States, this study shows how white women and Chinese men working together in intimate settings became increasingly scrutinized and subject to rampant social commentary and governmental intervention as racial, sexual, and class tensions flared.

The Effects of Mutual Trustworthiness between Labour and Management in Adopting High Performance Work Systems - Kim, Yoon-Ho; Kim, Dong-One; Ali, Mohammad A. (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
In this study, we examine the role of mutual trustworthiness between labour representatives and management and its relationship with the adoption of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in the Korean employment relations context. We argue that trustworthiness is a feature of the parties to the exchange, as opposed to trust, which explains the nature of exchange relationships. We follow existing literature on trustworthiness and agree that it is composed of three variables, i.e., ability, integrity, and benevolence. We test the effects of these three variables as important antecedents for the adoption of HPWS at the workplace level. Using the National Establishment Survey 2009 conducted by Statistics Korea as a sample frame, we survey a representative sample of Korean establishments. These data consist of 1,353 paired responses from labour representatives and managers. Our results show that labour-management mutual ability trustworthiness (MAT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems (Hypothesis 1); mutual benevolence trustworthiness (MBT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems (Hypothesis 2); and mutual integrity trustworthiness (MIT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems (Hypothesis 3). These results show that mutual trustworthiness in Korean employment relations is an important antecedent for the adoption of HPWS and can enable Korean industry to improve its position in the global economy. In the final analysis, it is implied that employment relations actors pursuing cooperative employment practices should ensure the development of a virtuous cycle of mutual trustworthiness. (English)
Keywords: Corea; Corée; HIGH performance work systems; Industrial relations; KOREA (South); Korea; LABOR organizing; Labor policy; RELIABILITY; Research; TAYLORISM (Management); Trust; Work environment; contexte professionnel coopératif; cooperative employment relations; fiabilidad mutua; industrial relations research; loyauté mutuelle; mutual trustworthiness; relaciones laborales cooperativas; sistemas de trabajo a alto rendimiento; systèmes de travail à haute performance

Legitimating the “Fiasco”: Canadian State Justifications of CORCAN Prison Labour - Kleuskens, Shanisse (Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015)
Since Kingston Penitentiary’s opening in 1835, prison labour has been an integral part of Canada’s penal history. With purported goals such as deterrence, rehabilitation, reintegration, and providing sustenance to the state, the practice of coercing or forcing a prisoner to work while serving a sentence of incarceration was further embedded in the penal landscape in 1980 with the inception of CORCAN, the Correctional Service of Canada’s prison labour program. Despite critiques of the prison as “a fiasco in terms of its own purposes” (Mathiesen, 2006, p. 141), prison labour continues as a mechanism of the state’s penal apparatus. Drawing on political economy of punishment and penal abolitionism literature, this study reveals and disrupts official discourses used to justify and perpetuate this modern form of slavery in Canada. Through a content analysis of 33 Solicitor General of Canada and CORCAN annual reports, I demonstrate how CORCAN’s prison labour program is legitimated as a “positive reform” (Mathiesen, 1974, p. 202) of Canada’s penal system, beneficial to the reintegration of prisoners into society, communities, and the needs of the Canadian state and economy. Underneath this benevolent mask such representations are found to reproduce neoliberal capitalism as the hegemonic form of economic organization, construing prisoners and prison labour as solutions to the gaps and shifts in the national economy and labour market. After outlining these contributions, I suggest ways that future research can reveal and discredit penal ‘solutions’ such as prison labour to eradicate the penal system as a means to address the harms inherent in our social and economic systems.

“They don´t represent us!” Opportunities for a Social Movement Unionism Strategy in Spain - Köhler, Holm-Detlev; Calleja Jiménez, José Pablo (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Our goal is to analyze strategies of union revitalization that have been successful elsewhere and have the potential to become so in Spain. Within these practices, Social Movement Unionism focuses on alliances with other groups to improve unions’ social efficiency. In this article, we address the applicability of the principles of Social Movement Unionism in the specific case of Spain. Given the transformations in the Spanish economy and labour laws tending towards further deregulation, Spanish unions have had to react. The emergence of new social movements such as the Indignados or Mareas Ciudadanas (civic tides) and the declining confidence in unions among the Spanish population, make this approach timely and appropriate. For this article, we will take certain aspects from the trade union revitalization debate and combine them with the main theories on New Social Movements. We will apply these approaches to a specific case study: The viability of cooperation between the largest Spanish trade unions and the recent social movements arising from the Indignados movement. For this purpose, we will primarily use data from secondary sources and transcripts of interviews conducted with unionists and social movement activists. With all these elements taken into consideration, we will conclude by showing the inhibiting and facilitating conditions for the development of a Social Movement Unionism strategy for the referred actors.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Unionization at Justice Canada: A Case Study - Kowalsky, Andrij Roman (York University, Osgoode Hall, 2015)
In April 2005, non-management lawyers working at the federal Department of Justice Canada (DOJ) were recognized by the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) as employees. This dissertation explores DOJ lawyers unionizing by addressing two research questions: (1) what led DOJ lawyers to unionize with the Association of Justice Counsel (AJC)? and (2) what was the AJC’s experience in negotiating a first collective agreement? The dissertation is organized using a conventional structure. The literature review presented in Chapter 2 maps the academic study of lawyer unionization. Chapter 3 elaborates on the dissertation’s research design as a case study. Chapter 4 explains DOJ lawyers’ exclusion from the Public Service Staff Relations Act, the DOJ’s administration of the individual employment relationship, and introduces the Legal Officers’ Advisory Committee (LOAC). Chapter 5 provides a historical analysis of events leading to LOAC becoming the AJC. The chapter describes how redressing an exclusive wage premium known as the “Toronto differential” helped LOAC generate employee support for forming the AJC as a professional association, and, later, campaigning for union recognition under the PSLRA. Chapter 6 presents the AJC’s negotiation and completion of a first labour agreement. Chapter 7 concludes the work. Findings from the seven chapters are synthesized into a descriptive theory that addresses the two research questions. Its thesis is that DOJ lawyers’ desire for workplace representation and improved wages, executive level support from the DOJ, and introduction of the PSLRA facilitated the creation and development of the AJC into a vehicle that directed the unionization process. The argument further holds that the AJC negotiated a first collective agreement with an employer who engaged in hard bargaining that resulted in deadlocked negotiations, but was conduct, nonetheless, the courts determined had allowed the AJC a meaningful process of collective bargaining prior to the imposition of wage-restraint legislation. The dissertation’s findings: (1) detail the establishment of a new professional union in Canada’s federal public service; (2) confirm the relevance of the processual model for understanding DOJ lawyers unionizing; and (3) suggest that litigation challenging legislation remains unpredictable despite jurisprudence that protects the process of collective bargaining.
Keywords: Association of Justice Counsel; Collective bargaining; Department of Justice Canada; Department of Justice Canada lawyers; Labor relations; Law; Social research; Unionization; case study

Autoworkers Under the Gun: A Shop-Floor View of the End of the American Dream - Kozlowski, Jason (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Autoworkers Under the Gun: A Shop-Floor View of the End of the American Dream," by Gregg Shotwell.

Work, Industry, and Canadian Society - Krahn, Harvey; Lowe, Graham S.; Hughes, Karen (Nelson Education, 2015)
Work, Industry and Canadian Society brings to light the social ramifications of work. With a focus on the Canadian workplace, the author team examines how individual, societal, national, and global issues shape this central human activity. In this seventh edition, the text draws upon the growing literature on work and employment, organizations, and management approaches to incorporate recent empirical findings, review new and ongoing theoretical and policy debates, and provide a more international perspective. The authors use their years of experience in research and teaching to compose this comprehensive volume on the past, present and future of work in Canada. –Publisher's description
Keywords: Work – Social aspects – Canada – Textbooks

Lost in the Ocean of Deregulation? : The Greek Labour Movement in a Time of Crisis - Kretsos, Lefteris; Vogiatzoglou, Markos (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The 2008 financial crisis had a tremendous impact on the Greek economy and society. Since 2010, widespread popular mobilizations have emerged against the austerity measures that were part of the bail-out package proposed to the Greek governments by the Troika of creditors (EU-ECB-IMF). Yet the institutional trade unions have failed to impede the reduction of wage earners’ income, which, by 2013, had dropped by 50% compared to 2008 levels. These unions have also been largely unable to confirm their leading role in mobilizing the working population. This article examines the reasons for the failure of the institutional trade unions to adequately address the austerity challenge. We consider that the explanation of their shortcomings lies in the generic challenges and problems contemporary trade unions are facing, as documented in the relevant international literature, as well as the specific particularities and traits of the Greek socio-political context. We also investigate the alternatives proposed by militant, grassroots labour organizations, such as neighbourhood-based workers’ clubs, industry sector or company-based unions populated by precarious workers, and occupied, self-managed companies. After identifying the strong points of the latter’s contributions, as well as the problems and challenges they are facing, we conclude that a diversified and innovative approach is required on the part of the labour movement in order to simultaneously address and exploit all sources of workers’ power. The article concludes that a process of strategic rapprochement between mainstream and radical unions in Greece is necessary.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Women's History - Kubik, Wendee; Marchildon, Gregory P. (University of Regina Press, 2015)
This fifth volume of the History of the Prairie West Series contains a broad range of articles spanning the 1870s to the present and examines the mostly unexplored place of women in the history of the Canada's Prairie Provinces. From "Spinsters Need Not Apply" to "Negotiating Sex: Gender in the Ukrainian Bloc Settlement," women’s roles in politics, law, agriculture, labour, and journalism are explored to reveal a complex portrait of women struggling to find safety, have careers, raise children, and be themselves in an often harsh environment.
Keywords: pioneer; prairies; women

Changing Work Relationships and the Protection of Workers under Quebec and Australian Occupational Health and Safety Law Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Laflamme, Anne-Marie (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
Quebec's occupational health and safety regime has not kept pace with the far-reaching transformation in work organisation which has occurred in the past several decades. Rights and duties under Quebec legislation continue to be defined in relation to the paradigm of the traditional contract of employment, even though the concept of the employment contract is of diminishing relevance in the face of ever-increasing use of contracting, subcontracting, labour hire agencies, supply chains and other alternative work arrangements. Given the documented link between precarious work and a heightened risk of job-related hazards, and that health and safety at work has long been recognized as a fun- damental human right, the author argues that Quebec law is in need of reform. Such reform, she contends, could be modelled on the harmonised Work Health and Safety Acts recently adopted by most Australian jurisdictions. The most notable innovation in the Australian statutes is the imposition of a broad gen- eral duty of care on any "person conducting a business or undertaking. " That duty applies to all categories of workers, regardless of whether or not there is an employment contract. Furthermore, the Acts stipulate that where multiple persons are involved in the conduct of a business or undertaking, they are obli- gated to consult, cooperate and coordinate in order to ensure the health and safety of workers, all of whom are entitled to participate in the consultations through their elected representatives. While noting that effective enforcement of these provisions continues to present challenges, the author sees the Australian reform as an important step forward in providing occupational health and safety protections for precarious workers.

The Economic Impact of the Great Recession on Aboriginal People Living off Reserve in Canada - Lamb, Danielle (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The present analysis seeks to examine whether the 2008 recession had a differential impact on Aboriginal as compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians as measured by the differences in the probability of unemployment between the two groups. Specifically, the present study tests two hypotheses: 1- Aboriginal people have been disproportionately burdened by the Great Recession as compared to non-Aboriginal people, and as a consequence; 2- Aboriginal people are more likely than non-Aboriginal people to be discouraged workers. The study uses data obtained from the master files of the Canadian Labour Force Survey for the years 2007 to 2012 inclusive to estimate the probability that an individual is unemployed based on a set of observable characteristics for a sample of labour force participants. The methodology begins by estimating a pooled model across all years, which includes controls for Aboriginal identity. Secondly, individual models of the probability of unemployment are estimated for each year for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal labour force participants. The difference in the probability of unemployment from pooled models estimated separately for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples are decomposed to reveal the proportion of the gap that is due to differences in observable characteristics between the two groups and the amount of the gap that is attributable to differential returns to those characteristics. To investigate the second hypothesis, the study estimates the probability that a respondent is a discouraged worker based on the entire sample of both economically active and inactive persons (i.e. labour force participants and well as those not in the labour force). The results of both the pooled and individual models of the probability of unemployment support the first hypothesis, that Aboriginal peoples were disproportionately burdened by the 2008 recession as seen in higher and more enduring probabilities of unemployment. By the 2012, estimated unemployment rates had roughly returned to their pre-recessionary levels for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal respondents with strongest labour force attachments. When individuals with weaker labour force attachments (i.e. those who have been unemployed for more than twelve months) are included in the analysis, the gap between the probability of unemployment for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal persons widens. Furthermore, the second hypothesis, that Aboriginal people are more likely to be discouraged workers, was supported, as Aboriginal people were more likely to be discouraged workers in 2008-2010 and 2012.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Union Democracy as a Foundation for a Participatory Society: A Theoretical Elaboration and Historical Example - Langford, Tom (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This essay argues that union democracy (in the sense of active direct democracy at local levels in combination with highly accountable representative systems at more general levels) can be an important foundation for efforts to build a participatory society. It establishes, through a literature review, that pessimism about the capacity of unions to be functioning democracies is overstated; and then offers corrections for three weaknesses in the classical theory of participatory democracy. The first weakness – failing to analyze how participatory processes are gendered, racialized, and sexualized – is overcome by drawing upon feminist ideas for creating highly inclusive group processes. The second weakness – believing that an exaggerated consensus can be created through participation – is remedied with insights drawn from agonistic pluralism. The third weakness – assuming that participation in workplace governance is the essential, participatory training ground – is corrected with insights drawn from research on deliberative democracy. After enumerating eight reasons to pick unions as a focus for participatory efforts from amongst the various alternatives, the essay concludes with a historical example of how the combination of direct democracy and representative democratic accountability in the five United Mine Workers of America locals in the Crowsnest Pass, Canada, in the mid-20th century “spilled over” into this regional coalfield society, thereby nurturing a fledgling participatory society.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

Les comités syndicaux jeunes: Acteurs du changement institutionnel ou voie de contournement? - Laroche, Mélanie; Dufour-Poirier, Mélanie (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Examines the participation of young workers in unions as well as their place in unions' committee structures. Considers the literature on integration of young workers into unions, the revitalization of unions through institutional change (three key criteria are delineated), and the results of a survey (interviews, focus groups) that was conducted by the authors. Concludes that youth should play a greater role than consultation and education — that they should have a voice rather than a presence in union councils — which in turn would encourage participation by other minority groups in union renewal.

The Communist International and US Communism, 1919–1929 - Le Blanc, Paul (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Communist International and US Communism, 1919–1929," by Jacob A. Zumoff.

The Influence of External Information on Collective Bargaining: Survey Evidence of Union and Firm Negotiators in the Netherlands - Lehr, Alex; Akkerman, Agnes; Torenvlied, René (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
This paper seeks to answer two questions: 1- To what extent are negotiators in collective bargaining influenced by different types of external information? 2- How can differences in the influence of external information between negotiators be explained by the characteristics of the negotiators and bargaining units? A standardized questionnaire measuring self-reported influences of different types of external information was developed and administered to a representative sample of union and firm negotiators in the Netherlands. In total, 123 negotiators participated in the survey. Four types of external information were investigated: 1- economic information; 2- information on organizational power; 3- institutional information; and 4- information spillovers. Descriptive analyses show that economic information, particularly when referring to the sector level, was very influential, as was institutional information on national and sectoral collective agreement developments. Information reflecting organizational power, e.g. militancy, carried less weight, while information on other bargaining events, i.e. spillover, was also very important. From extant theory, empirical findings and common assumptions in labour relations literature, the paper developed and tested a number of hypotheses concerning the influence of external information. It was found that the influence of spillovers increased with the proximity of their source. Union negotiators were generally more influenced by external information than firm negotiators. There was some evidence that influence increased with experience, but this effect was rather modest. Evidence that negotiators in sector bargaining were less affected by the economic environment than negotiators in company bargaining was weak, but they were found to be less influenced by spillovers and international collective agreement developments.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

L’approche systémique de la gestion des ressources humaines dans les administrations publiques du XXI siècle - Lessard, René (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "L’approche systémique de la gestion des ressources humaines dans les administrations publiques du XXIe siècle," by Louise Lemire, Gaétan Martel and Éric Charest.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Working Men's Bodies: Work Camps in Britain, 1880-1940 - Levine-Clark, Marjorie (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Working Men's Bodies: Work Camps in Britain, 1880-1940," by John Field.

The Precarity Penalty: The Impact of Employment Precarity on Individuals, Households and Communities - and What to Do About It - Lewchuk, Wayne; Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario; Laflèche, Michelynn; Procyk, Stephanie; Dyson, Diane; Goldring, Luin; Lior, Karen; Meisner, Alan; Shields, John L.; Tambureno, Anthony; Viducis, Peter (Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario, 2015)
In 2013, the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group released the report, "It's More than Poverty: Employment Precarity and Household Wellbeing." Based on 4,165 surveys collected in late 2011 and early 2012, and 83 interviews conducted in 2011 with workers in different forms of precarious employment, It's More than Poverty examined the characteristics of employment in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTHA). It documented the range of employment experiences and it revealed the extent of insecurity associated with insecure employment relationships. Equally important, it showed the impact of insecure employment relationships on individual and household well-being and community participation.... –From Executive Summary.
OCLC: 929597951
Keywords: Canada. Temporary employment; Labour market; Ontario; Precarious Employment

Ian Milligan, Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada - Lexier, Roberta (Historical Studies in Education / Revue d'histoire de l'éducation, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada," by Ian Milligan.

The First Green Wave: Pollution Probe and the Origins of Environmental Activism in Ontario - Longley, Hereward (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The First Green Wave: Pollution Probe and the Origins of Environmental Activism in Ontario," by Ryan O’Connor.

Revolutionizing Retail: Workers, Political Action, and Social Change - Luce, Stephanie (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Revolutionizing Retail: Workers, Political Action, and Social Change," by Kendra Coulter.

According to Baba: A Collaborative Oral History of Sudbury's Ukrainian Community - Luciuk, Kassandra (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "According to Baba: A Collaborative Oral History of Sudbury's Ukrainian Community," by Stacey Zembrzycki.

The Match Girl and the Heiress - MacKay, Lynn (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Match Girl and the Heiress," by Seth Koven.

Decolonizing Employment: Aboriginal Inclusion in Canada's Labour Market - MacKinnon, Shauna (University of Manitoba Press, 2015)
Indigenous North Americans continue to be overrepresented among those who are poor, unemployed, and with low levels of education. This has long been an issue of concern for Indigenous people and their allies and is now drawing the attention of government, business leaders, and others who know that this fast-growing population is a critical source of future labour. Shauna MacKinnon's Decolonizing Employment: Aboriginal Inclusion in Canada's Labour Market is a case study with lessons applicable to communities throughout North America. Her examination of Aboriginal labour market participation outlines the deeply damaging, intergenerational effects of colonial policies and describes how a neoliberal political economy serves to further exclude Indigenous North Americans. MacKinnon's work demonstrates that a fundamental shift in policy is required. Long-term financial support for comprehensive, holistic education and training programs that integrate cultural reclamation and small supportive learning environments is needed if we are to improve social and economic outcomes and support the spiritual and emotional healing that Aboriginal learners tell us is of primary importance. –Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction – Social exclusion, poverty, inequality, and policy in the neo-liberal age – The labour market, policy, and Canada's aboriginal population – The Manitoba labour force and the policy environment – Decolonization: confronting the elephant in the room – Assessing the impact of neo-liberal training policy – A continuum of training responses – Voices from the front lines – Lessons learned: implications for policy – Conclusion. Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-204) and index.
OCLC: 908990693
Keywords: 21st century; Canada; Case studies. Autochtones; Case studies. Labor policy; Case studies. Native peoples; Conditions sociales; Economic conditions; Education; Employment; Labor policy; Politique gouvernementale; Social conditions; Travail

An Organizational Study of Mental Health in the Workplace - Malachowski, Cindy (University of Toronto, Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science, 2015)
Workplace mental health is becoming of increasing importance, in part due to the rising social and economic costs of mental health issues in the workplace. Little is known about how the experience of workers with mental health issues is actively produced through their participation in workplace procedures and associated supports. The purpose of this research is to better understand how employees actively engage in institutional practices and associated social relations that ultimately coordinate and produce their workplace experience. Using institutional ethnography, I take up the standpoint of the employee living with mental health issues to explore the coordinating relations associated with workplace mental health. This approach sheds light on how employees' experiences are socially produced and coordinated across and between institutional processes and practices. Data collection included over 140 hours of ethnographic observations, the analysis of associated texts and documents, and interviews that were conducted with 17 informants. This research details some of the challenges experienced by one novice health science researcher while conducting ethnographic research, and provides techniques for addressing personal and professional boundaries, negotiating ethical dilemmas, and reconciling the emotional experience of transitioning back and forth between being an `outsider' and `insider'. In addition to these insights, the findings explicate the social relations and institutional processes that coordinate sick time utilization for workers experiencing mental health issues. We revealed that employee's work of managing workplace absence management programs while negotiating episodes of mental ill health was perceived as overwhelming, unfair, and even punitive. Employees would require formal and informal respite from work, and would often utilized vacation time when unwell in order to avoid institutional processes all together. The biomedical focus of the absence management program created uncertainty about what constitutes a bona fide illness, and caused managers to come to know their work activities as distinctively separate from the work of healthcare practitioners. This research contributes to the literature by highlighting how tensions are created through textually coordinated work activities within and between the corporate and healthcare sector. These insights are important in establishing where and how to enact change from the standpoint of the worker.
Keywords: Institutional ethnography; Mental health; Mental illness; Social organization; Stigma; Workplace

Pinay on the Prairies: Filipino Women and Transnational Identities - Malek, Jon G. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Pinay on the Prairies: Filipino Women and Transnational Identities," by Glenda Tibe Bonifacio.

Transition to Common Work: Building Community at the Working Centre - Mancini, Joseph; Mancini, Stephanie (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015)
The Working Centre in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, is a widely recognized and successful model for community development. Begun from scratch in 1982, it is now a vast network of practical supports for the unemployed, the underemployed, the temporarily employed, and the homeless, populations that collectively constitute up to 30 percent of the labour market both locally and across North America. Transition to Common Work is the essential text about The Working Centre–its beginnings thirty years ago, the lessons learned, and the myriad ways in which its strategies and innovations can be adapted by those who share its goals. The Working Centre focuses on creating access-to-tools projects rather than administrative layers of bureaucracy. This book highlights the core philosophy behind the centre's decentralized but integrated structure, which has contributed to the creation of affordable services. Underlying this approach are common-sense innovations such as thinking about virtues rather than values, developing community tools with a social enterprise approach, and implementing a radically equal salary policy. For social workers, activists, bureaucrats, and engaged citizens in third-sector organizations (NGOs, charities, not-for-profits, co-operatives), this practical and inspiring book provides a method for moving beyond the doldrums of "poverty relief" into the exciting world of community building. –Publisher's website. Contents: Part 1: The Working Centre takes root – Introduction: beyond us and them – Building community: the Working Centre's roots – Liberation from overdevelopment – Part 2: Community engagement – The Virtues – St. John's Kitchen: redistribution through cooperation – Searching for work at the Help Centre – The nuts and bolts of an alternative organization – Part 3: Toward a philosophy of work – Ethical imagination: the Working Centre's approach to salaries – Community tools – Small is beautiful: re-embedding reciprocal relationships in daily work – Conclusion: transition to common work – Map of the Working Centre buildings and projects – Map of the Working Centre locations in downtown Kitchener – A thirty-year chronology of the Working Centre – People of the Working Centre.
OCLC: 898533681
Keywords: Community development; Ontario; Services for. Social work with the unemployed. Unemployed; Waterloo (Regional municipality) Poor; Waterloo (Regional municipality) Social work with the unemployed; Waterloo (Regional municipality) Unemployed

Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba - Marks, Lynne (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba," by Janis Thiessen.

The Blurred Boundaries of Anarchism and Punk in Vancouver, 1970–1983 - Martin, Eryk (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
While historians have been increasingly attentive to the politics and culture of social movements since the long sixties, they have engaged much less with the significance of anarchism within these activist currents. As part of an emerging field of anarchist studies, this article demonstrates that anarchist projects were critical in shaping postwar political radicalism in Vancouver and its relationship to a global pattern of cultural transformation, capitalist restructuring, and social movement activism. Specifically, the article investigates how and why Vancouver’s anarchist community created strong political, personal, and cultural connections with an emerging punk scene during the 1970s and early 1980s. It demonstrates that these relationships emerged from anarchism’s conflicting relationship with the city’s New Left and countercultural communities in the long sixties, as well as from anarchists’ specific engagement with punk as a tool for revolutionary struggle in the wake of the sixties. Overall, the article argues that anarchists cultivated connections with punk in this context because they saw it as awash with the potential to bridge generations of political dissent; to support emerging activist projects; and to help usher in new expressions of radical culture in the city. In so doing, the article offers new insights into the political, social, and cultural legacies of the long sixties, in Vancouver and beyond.

Corporate Social Responsibility as Work Law: A Critical Assessment in the Light of the Principle of Human Dignity Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Martin, Isabelle (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
The organization of work through production networks undermines the application of labour law to a growing proportion of workers. Protections put in place by labour law, specifically devised to apply within the hierarchical and bilateral structure of the employer/employee relationship, are ill-fitted to tackle the multilateral structure of network production in which market and hierarchical relationships are entangled. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) appears to some as a possible answer to these challenges. The author develops a normative and functional framework to assess the promise and limits of CSR as a regulatory tool. The framework is grounded in human dignity, as concep- tualized by human rights law and political philosophy. A holistic understanding of human dignity highlights the interdependency of labour law's basic func- tions: providing minimum working conditions, ensuring employer accountability for working hazards, and enabling workers' collective action. The author then applies the human dignity framework to codes of conduct, as described and analyzed in current literature on the subject. She concludes that CSR codes and their implementation often fall short of what is required in the workplace by the human dignity principle.

Creating a “Home Feeling”: The Canadian Reading Camp Association and the Uses of Fiction, 1900–1905 - Mason, Jody (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Although the history of Canada’s oldest adult literacy organization, Frontier College, is of great relevance to labour studies, it has been more or less ignored by this field, largely because of its links to the early 20th-century social gospel movement and because of the difficulty of studying workers’ responses to the association. This article examines the first half-decade of Frontier College (known until 1919 as the Canadian Reading Camp Association) using a variety of methodologies – labour history, cultural and literary history, the history of education, and the history of reading – to understand how culture was used in the service of liberal government in the context of northern Ontario’s lumber camps at the turn of the century. The association’s promotion of literacy via fiction for frontier labourers signalled a new acceptance in Canada of the notion that workers might actually be improved through fiction. Alfred Fitzpatrick, the association’s founder, feared a state that was failing to assume responsibility for isolated and uneducated men on the frontier, as well as working-class men who responded to their poor working conditions by succumbing to moral diseases that left them incapable of governing themselves, leading their families, or functioning as rational citizens. Fitzpatrick developed a double strategy to head off this crisis: he lobbied the state for structural change, and at the same time promoted a home-like environment for reading, as well as particular works of fiction, as a means of reminding male workers of their duty to self, family, and nation. Despite the association’s apparent interest in the cultivation of the liberal individual, its reliance on the reading room and on the fiction of popular authors such as Ralph Connor as surrogates for the absent family demonstrates the centrality of the apparently private sphere to early 20th-century Canada’s industrializing economy.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

Solidarités provinciales. Histoire de la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Nouveau-Brunswick - Massicotte, Julien (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Solidarités provinciales. Histoire de la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Nouveau-Brunswick," by David Frank.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Work in a Warming World - McBride, Stephen; Lipsig-Mummé, Caria (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015)
Global warming is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the twenty-first century. Environmental polices on the one hand, and economic and labour market polices on the other, often exist in separate silos creating a dilemma that Work in a Warming World confronts. The world of work - goods, services, and resources - produces most of the greenhouse gases created by human activity. In engaging essays, contributors demonstrate how the world of work and the labour movement need to become involved in the struggle to slow global warming, and the ways in which environmental and economic policies need to be linked dynamically in order to effect positive change. Addressing the dichotomy of competing public policies in a Canadian context, Work in a Warming World presents ways of creating an effective response to global warming and key building blocks toward a national climate strategy. –Publisher's description, Contents: Introduction / Stephen McBride and Carla Lipsig-Mummé – International constraints on green strategies : Ontario's WTO defeat and public sector remedies / Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew – Unions and climate change in Europe : the contrasting experience of Germany and the UK / John Calvert – Gendered emissions : counting greenhouse gas emissions by gender and why it matters / Marjorie Griffin Cohen – Canadian labour's climate dilemma / Geoffrey Bickerton and Carla Lipsig-Mummé – Renewable energy development as industrial strategy / Mark Winfield – (Re)building sustainable infrastructure : implications for engineers / Kean Birch and Dalton Wudrich – Construction and climate change : overcoming roadblocks to achieving green workplace competencies / John Calvert – Labour and the greening of hospitality : raising standards or union greenwashing? / Steven Tufts and Simon Milne – Cities, climate change, and the green economy / Stephen McBride, John Shields, and Stephanie Tombari – Renewable energy, sustainable jobs : the case of the Kingston, Ontario Region / Andrea Megan MacCallum, Lindsay Napier, John Holmes, and Warren Edward Mabee.
Book available at Internet Archive to people with print disabilities: https://archive.org/details/workinwarmingwor0000unse

An Aging Workforce and the Future Labour Market in Canada - McDaniel, Susan A.; Wong, Lloyd L.; Watt, Bonnie (Canadian Public Policy, 2015)
The aging workforce poses perplexing policy challenges, even in Canada, which is demographically young among comparable countries. We ask what the evidence shows about whether there are, or will be, labour or skills shortages as the workforce ages. Highlighting the challenges of measuring labour/skills shortages, we explore peer-reviewed research in the 2000–2013 period. No evidence is found of a national labour shortage in the foreseeable future. In fact, the workforce is predicted to grow for the coming two decades with less shrinkage than in the past as a result of retirements. Regional and occupational shortages occur at times, as well as underutilized skills.

Similarity or Variation? Employee Representation and Consultation Approaches amongst Liberal Market Economy Multinationals - McDonnell, Anthony; Boyle, Brendan; Bartram, Timothy; Stanton, Pauline; Burgess, John (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
This paper engages with the varieties of capitalism literature to investigate the employee representation and consultation approaches of liberal market economy multinational companies (MNCs), specifically Australian, British and US MNCs operating in Australia. While the literature would suggest commonality amongst these MNCs, the paper considers whether the evidence points to similarity or variation amongst liberal market headquartered MNCs. The findings contribute to filling a recognized empirical gap on MNC employment relations practice in Australia and to a better understanding of within category varieties of capitalism similarity and variation. Drawing on survey data from MNCs operating in Australia, the results demonstrated that UK-owned MNCs were the least likely to report collective structures of employee representation. Moreover, it was found that Australian MNCs were the most likely to engage in collective forms of employee representation and made less use of direct consultative mechanisms relative to their British and US counterparts. In spite of the concerted individualization of the employment relations domain over previous decades, Australian MNCs appear to have upheld more long-standing national institutional arrangements with respect to engaging with employees on a collective basis. This varies from British and US MNC approaches which denotes that our results display within category deviation in the variety of capitalism liberal market economy typology. Just as Hall and Soskice described their seminal work on liberal market economy (LME) and coordinated market economy (CME) categories as a “work-in-progress” (2001: 2), we too suggest that Australia’s evolution in the LME category, and more specifically its industrial relations system development, and the consequences for employment relations practices of its domestic MNCs, may be a work-in-progress.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Unfreedom and Workers' Power: Ever-Present Possibilities - McGrath, Siobhán; Strauss, Kendra (Handbook of the International Political Economy of Production, 2015)
Trafficking, forced labour and related phenomena have been documented time and again in recent years by advocacy groups, the media and government agencies. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 20.9 million people in some form of forced labour worldwide. The estimate is broken down regionally and sectorally: 11.7 million of these are thought to be in the Asia and Pacific region; and 18.7 million are believed to be in the private economy, among whom 14.2 million are involved in economic activities not related to sexual exploitation. Debt bondage appears to be the most common mechanism of forced labour (cf. ILO 2005; 2012; Andrees and Belser 2009). The prevalence of labour relations characterized by various forms of unfreedom raises critical questions about how the phenomenon fits into the contemporary economy, and therefore about how to address the issue(s) in ways that advance the interests of all exploited workers. –Chapter abstract at Durham Research Online
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/handbook-of-the-international-political-economy-of-production-9781784712587.html OCLC: 908245189
Keywords: 83.42 international trade; Internationell ekonomi; Nationalekonomi; Politische Ökonomie; Production; Production (Economic theory); Produktion; Produktion (ekonomi)

The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest - McNeil, Daniel (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest," by Stephen Tuck.

Gendered Pasts: Historical Essays in Feminity and Masculinity in Canada - McPherson, Kathryn; Morgan, Cecilia; Forestell, Nancy M. (University of Toronto Press, 2015)
It is commonplace today to suggest that gender is socially constructed, that the roles women and men fulfill in their daily lives have been created and defined for them by society and social institutions. But how have men and women negotiated and navigated the gender roles that have been thrust upon them? With Gendered Pasts, Kathryn McPherson, Cecilia Morgan, and Nancy M. Forestell have collected eleven engaging essays that seek to answer this question in a wide-ranging exploration of specific gendered dimensions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian history.The contributors cover all manner of topics related to gender and history across Canada, including: female vagrancy; gambling, drinking, and sex; the role of the miner's wife; the portrayal of gay men; and the sharply defined role of nurses. Unusual in its breadth, Gendered Pasts is essential to the understanding of the various threads and themes in Canadian gender history. Previously published by Oxford University Press, . –Publisher's description
Book available at Internet Archive to people with print disabilities: http://archive.org/details/genderedpastshis0000unse_d9z9
Keywords: Sex role – Canada – History – 19th century

Precarious Worlds: Contested Geographies of Social Reproduction - Meehan, Katie; Strauss, Kendra (University of Georgia Press, 2015)
This edited collection contributes to the theoretical literature on social reproduction - defined by Marx as the necessary labor to arrive the next day at the factory gate - and extended by feminist geographers and others into complex understandings of the relationship between paid labor and the unpaid work of daily life. The volume explores new terrain in social reproduction with a focus on the challenges posed by evolving theories of embodiment and identity, nonhuman materialities, and diverse economies. –Publisher's description
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313388593_Precarious_worlds_Contested_geographies_of_social_reproduction OCLC: 905685827
Keywords: Economics Sociological aspects; Feminist economics; Feminist geography; Géographie féministe; Households Economic aspects; Labor; Ménages (Statistique) Aspect économique; Travail; labor; Économie féministe

Indigenous Women, Work, and History, 1940-1980 - Miller, Douglas K. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Indigenous Women, Work, and History, 1940-1980," by Mary Jane Logan McCallum.

"If You Want Blood": Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960-1980 - Milloy, Jeremy Strachan (Simon Fraser University, 2015)
Violence in the workplace has attracted widespread scholarly and media attention in the United States and Canada since the 1980s. Governments and corporations on both sides of the border have identified this violence as a serious problem affecting the health and safety of workers. However, there is still much that is unknown about workplace violence. Is the problem of workplace violence more serious than it was today? How has it changed over time? What are the factors that have produced violence at work? How have workers, management, and governments defined violence at work? How have they approached the problem? This dissertation historicizes the phenomenon of workplace violence, investigating on-the-job violence in the North American automotive industry between 1960-1980. It embeds violence at work in its economic, political, and cultural contexts and investigates how violence shaped the North American workplace and identities of class, gender, and race on the job. A comparative, transnational approach is central to this study. If we seek to understand the structural factors causing workplace violence, the national context cannot be ignored. This is especially true when considering the US and Canada, two countries which are extraordinarily integrated economically but often contrasted socially and culturally. My research has uncovered a significant history of violence in the automotive workplaces of Detroit and Windsor, and shows that national and local contexts were crucial in determining the level of violence. Violence was a regular element of shop-floor culture and workplace conflict in both countries, but was different in each. In Detroit, violence at work reached epidemic levels and was a major factor in the crisis that gripped the city's auto plants in the 1960s and 1970s. This was not the case in Windsor. Yet in both cities workplace violence became a major concern outside the factory when work-related murders seized national headlines and challenged citizens to understand these tragedies. The thesis demonstrates that, though the patterns and levels of violence were different in each place, violence was no aberration, no freak occurrence, but an ongoing phenomenon that influenced the labour process and workplace culture in both Detroit and Windsor.
https://cha-shc.ca/prize-winner/jeremy-milloy/

"I Wanted a Career, Not a Job" First Nations and Metis Employment in the Construction of the Lower Mattagami River Project - Mills, Suzanne; St. Amand, Anne (McMaster University, School of Labour Studies and Geography and Earth Sciences, 2015)
This report was prepared for the Moose Cree First Nation. Employment opportunities figure prominently in the private agreements between First Nations, Inuit and Métis governments and the resource companies who want to develop on their territories. Resource companies and Indigenous leadership alike often see employment opportunities as a key way that local communities can benefit from resource-related development. Many early agreements, however, provided for entry-level positions but not for training that would lead to meaningful work that is well compensated for Indigenous communities. As a result, employment provisions in agreements often strive to provide greater detail about access to training and movement into higher skilled positions. Access to training is particularly critical in the construction sector, since jobs are short term and range from unskilled positions that have no upward mobility to registered tradespersons, foreman and superintendent positions. This report offers a detailed examination of how a negotiated agreement facilitated the training and employment of First Nations workers in the construction phase of the Lower Mattagami River Hydro River Project (LMRP) from 2010 to 2015.
https://research.library.mun.ca/13422/1/Mills%20%26%20Amand%20_First%20Nations%20Employment%20LMRP.pdf

The Canadian Mining Industry 2015 Employment, Hiring Requirements and Available Talent 10-year Outlook - Mining Industry Human Resources Council (Mining Industry Human Resources Council, 2015)
In-depth forecast of the next two, five and ten years of the existing workforce, demographics and diversity, and other challenges in the Canadian mining industry. Concludes that the industry faces significant labour market challenges and pressures in the coming years.

Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500 - Mitchell, Tom (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500," by Marcel Martel.

Hurrah Revolutionaries: The Polish Canadian Communist Movement, 1918–1948 - Mochoruk, Jim (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Hurrah Revolutionaries: The Polish Canadian Communist Movement, 1918–1948," by Patryk Polec.

State Repression and Political Deportation in Canada, 1919-1936 - Molinaro, Dennis (University of Toronto, 2015)
Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada was in force from1919 to 1936. The dissertation traces the way in which Canada incorporated emergency law, created during the First World War under the War Measures Act, into the Criminal Code as Section 98 after the war to combat political radicalism from 1919 to 1936. In contrast to existing scholarship, this work not only explains how a liberal democracy like Canada can legally use emergency legislation outside of a state of emergency through a process of `normalization' but it also examines the effects of such laws on their human targets through case studies of criminal trials and deportation hearings. Targets included political activists, immigrants and women. It makes contributions to Canada's legal, immigration, labour and intelligence history. The study also examines the international influences on Canadian policy makers in creating such laws and the complex international identities of the transnational activists at whom these laws were often directed. The work examines how culture played a crucial role in underpinning the intelligence cycle that led to the prosecution of leading Communist Party of Canada (CPC) members. It also complicates our understanding of the CPC during Moscow's `Third Period.' It was a party that both marginalized and welcomed immigrant workers. The dissertation provides an in-depth examination of the trial of Rex v. Buck et al and the ways in which political ideology was interpreted by the court as a criminal act. It examines cases of deportation that resulted from the trial, such as the case of the `Halifax Ten,' and traces what happened to the deportees after their deportation making use of Finnish, Polish, Croatian, and German primary sources. In addition, this work demonstrates how the communist led organization, the Canadian Labour Defense League (CLDL) initiated Canada's civil rights movement by joining with moderate leftists during the `Third Period,' and before the Communist International's shift to the `United Front' policy, to repeal Section 98. It demonstrates how the normalization of emergency law continued after Section 98's repeal when its core elements were retained and folded into Canada's sedition laws where it remains today.
Keywords: Section 98; communism; deportation; national security; state of emergency; state of exception

Putting the State on Trial: The Policing of Protest during the G20 Summit - Monaghan, Jeffrey (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Putting the State on Trial: The Policing of Protest during the G20 Summit," edited by Margaret E. Beare, Nathalie Des Rosiers, and Abigail C. Deshman.

Le travail de prévention : Les relations professionnelles face aux risques cancérogènes - Montreuil, Sylvie (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Le travail de prévention : Les relations professionnelles face aux risques cancérogènes," by Arnaud Mias, et al.
Keywords: CARRICABURU; Daniele; FELIU; Francois; JAMET; Ludovic; LE travail de prevention: Les relations professionnelles face aux risques cancerogenes (Book); LEGRAND; Emilie; MIAS; Arnaud; Nonfiction; Occupational diseases; Prevention

Life on the Line: Indigenous Women Cannery Workers' Experiences of Precarious Work - Morgan, Norma Jean (University of British Columbia, 2015)
This dissertation examines the experiences of Indigenous women engaged in precarious and seasonal salmon cannery work. The dissertation argues that to grasp the nature of the women's work, which is exceedingly precarious, it is necessary to consider how it is shaped by a host of social, political, environmental and economic forces. In particular, the dissertation illustrates how provincial and Canadian neoliberal policies that developed during the past few decades have amplified the vulnerable status of Indigenous women cannery workers. Neoliberal discourses of active (worthy) and passive (unworthy) citizens embedded in social policies powerfully shape qualification requirements to programs such as Employment Insurance and Income Assistance while individualizing social inequalities experienced by Indigenous women. The dissertation employs both decolonizing and feminist methodologies to examine the everyday experiences of Indigenous women and to map out the social relations that shape their experience as precarious workers. Overall the dissertation contributes to making Indigenous women worker's lives more visible, to showing their significance in the salmon canning industry, to highlighting how their precarious labour undermines their well being and that of their families, and to demonstrating their resilience in the face of major obstacles.

Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism - Moses, Nigel Roy (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism," by Karen M. Paget

Property in Labour and the Limits of Contract - Mummé, Claire (Research Handbook on Political Economy and Law, 2015)
The argument of this paper is that a contractual framework obscures more than the inequality of bargaining power between the parties – it also obscures the proprietary basis of the exchange. The employment contract is a legal mechanism designed to transfer wages and rights of control over workers’ capacity to labour. Conceived of in this way, the employment relationship is fundamentally a contest for control over property (labour power) waged through contract. For this reason, analysing the property parameters of the employment relationship opens up another window for examining the strengths and weaknesses of regulating employment through contract. – From author's introduction
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-political-economy-and-law-9781788111218.html https://www.academia.edu/127414737/Property_in_labour_and_the_limits_of_contract https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781005354.00034 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2468572

The Employee: A Political History - Mummé, Claire (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Employee: A Political History," by Jean-Christian Vinel
Keywords: Collective bargaining; EMPLOYEE: A Political History; The (Book); History; Industrial relations; Nonfiction; United States; VINEL; Jean-Christian

Unfree Masters: Recording Artists and the Politics of Work - Murray, Catherine (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Unfree Masters: Recording Artists and the Politics of Work," by Matt Stahl.

What's Love Got to Do with It?!: Teaching as a 'Labour of Love' and Ontario's 2012-13 Labour Disputes. - Nadon, Jaclyn (Queen's University, 2015)
The following entails a “historico-critical” (Foucault [1984] 2010:46) analysis of the connection between teaching and love encapsulated in public, political and media discourses during the 2012-13 education labour disputes in Ontario, Canada. Examining the history of teaching as a ‘feminized’ profession within a capitalist, patriarchal, settler-colonial state, I suggest that discourses constituting teachers as selfless carers are intimately linked to visions of motherhood and white supremacy. Furthermore, I suggest that the concept of selfless love operates as a tool for depoliticization, used primarily against women and others within a society subsumed by neoliberal rhetoric. Ultimately, thinking outside of and working against this conception of love as something inherently selfless can help us elaborate a more egalitarian vision of love which values both autonomy and collectivity through an acknowledgement of Levinasian selfhood.

The Great Depression in Latin America - Nállim, Jorge A. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Great Depression in Latin America," edited by Paulo Drinot and Alan Knight.

Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest; Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada - Naylor, James (Manitoba History, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour Unrest; Young Workers, and New Leftists in English Canada," by Ian Milligan.

Smart Globalization: The Canadian Business and Economic History Experience - Nerbas, Don (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Smart Globalization: The Canadian Business and Economic History Experience," edited by Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis.

Winning the War for Democracy: The March on Washington Movement, 1941–1946 - Newkirk, Anthony B. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Winning the War for Democracy: The March on Washington Movement, 1941–1946," by David Lucander.

Revisiting Quebec's Decrees: Can Juridical Extension Address the Issue of Precarious Work in Canada Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Ngo, Macduy (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
This paper considers the potential of Quebec's unique "decree system" as a measure that could be used to combat the rapid growth of precarious work in Canada. Under this system, which is also known as "juridical extensions," the province's government may order that a collective agreement covering a certain type of work be "extended" so as to be binding on all employers and employees in the sector, regardless of whether or not they are parties to a collective bar- gaining relationship. There are several reasons why precarious workers may benefit from an expansion and renewal of the decree system. First, the fact that decree coverage is broadly linked to the nature of the work performed avoids many of the regulatory problems that arise from labour market segmentation based on employment status or the form of the relationship. Thus, individuals who are in a disguised employment arrangement or in an agency or triangular work relationship (and who therefore may be excluded from labour relations, employment standards and other protective legislation) are entitled to the wages and benefits prescribed by an extended agreement. Second, parity committees - historically responsible for the administration and enforcement of extended agreements - could serve as the preferred platform for delivery of harmonized, sector-based pension, benefit and training programs. Third, those committees could be reconceived so as to facilitate workers'participation in decision-making at the enterprise level and thereby to promote industrial democracy. The author argues that while a comprehensive response to precariousness would likely require afar-ranging reevaluation of Canada's approach to labour market regu- lation, the decree system could provide at least a partial or intermediate solution.

Beyond Marx: Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century - Nichols, Shaun S. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Beyond Marx: Theorising the Global Labour Relations of the Twenty-First Century," edited by Marcel van der Linden and Karl Heinz Roth.

The Dignity of Every Human Being: New Brunswick Artists and Canadian Culture between the Great Depression and the Cold War - Niergarth, Kirk; University of Toronto Press (University of Toronto Press, 2015)
“The Dignity of Every Human Being” studies the vibrant New Brunswick artistic community which challenged “the tyranny of the Group of Seven” with socially-engaged realism in the 1930s and 40s. Using extensive archival and documentary research, Kirk Niergarth follows the work of regional artists such as Jack Humphrey and Miller Brittain, writers such as P.K. Page, and crafts workers such as Kjeld and Erica Deichmann. The book charts the rise and fall of “social modernism” in the Maritimes and the style’s deep engagement with the social and economic issues of the Great Depression and the Popular Front. Connecting local, national, and international cultural developments, Niergarth’s study documents the attempts of Depression-era artists to question conventional ideas about the nature of art, the social function of artists, and the institutions of Canadian culture. “The Dignity of Every Human Being” records an important and previously unexplored moment in Canadian cultural history. –Publisher's description
OCLC: 1237186766

Measuring Employment Standards Violations, Evasion and Erosion - Using a Telephone Survey - Noack, Andrea M.; Vosko, Leah F.; Grundy, John (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
For many workers in Ontario, the Employment Standards Act (ESA) provides the only formal measures of workplace protection. The complaints-based monitoring system utilized by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, however, makes it difficult to assess the overall prevalence of employment standards (ES) compliance in the labour force. In addition to outright ESA violations, prevailing research highlights the significance of the erosion, evasion, and outright abandonment of ES for workers’ access to protection through practices such as the misclassification of workers and types of work. In this article, we report on efforts to develop a telephone-survey questionnaire that measures the overall prevalence of ES violations, as well as evasion and erosion in low-wage jobs in Ontario, without requiring respondents to have any pre-existing legal knowledge. Key methodological challenges included developing strategies for identifying ‘misclassified’ independent contractors, establishing measures for determining whether workers were exempt from the ESA, and translating the regulatory nuances embedded in the legislation into easyto- answer questions. The result is a survey questionnaire unique in the Canadian context. Our questionnaire reflects the concerns of both academic researchers and workers’ rights activists. Pilot survey results show that Ontario workers do not necessarily distinguish between ES violations and other workplace grievances and complaints. With careful questionnaire design, it is nevertheless possible to measure the prevalence of ES violations, evasion and erosion. In order to track the effects of ES policies, particularly those on enforcement, we conclude by calling for the establishment of baseline measures and standardized reporting tools.
Keywords: Canada; EMPLOYEE attitude surveys; Employees; LABOR laws & legislation; Labor policy; NONUNION employees; ONTARIO. Employment Standards Act; 2000; Ontario; RANDOM digit dialing; Research; SURVEYS – Methodology; TELEPHONE surveys; Violations; Work environment; aplicación; employment standards; enforcement; industrial relations research; infracciones; metodología de encuesta; mise en application; méthodologie; normas de empleo; normes du travail; sondage téléphonique; sondeo telefónico; survey methodology; telephone survey

Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual - Opler, Daniel (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual," by Lauren Coodley.

Discourses of Teacher Professionalism: A Study of Union-Active Teachers - Osmond-Johnson, Pamela (University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 2015)
This study presents a qualitative cross-case analysis of the discourses of teacher professionalism amongst union active teachers in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Data collection included interviews with 11 members of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and 13 members from the Alberta Teachers’ Association, which were grounded in a document analysis of various reports, member magazines, news articles, and press releases dating back to the 1990s. The study reveals a triad of influences on the professionalism discourses of union-active teachers: engagement in teacher associations, the larger policy environment, and teacher agency. More specifically, participants’ inner drive to affect change, coupled with the capacity building experiences gained through their teacher association, saw many participants enacting and espousing discourses that positioned teachers as learners, leaders, advocates, and autonomous experts. That being said, member discourses were also impacted by the organizational priorities of their teacher associations and the extent to which the associations had been able to sway discourses within the larger policy environment to be supportive of teachers. These discursive influences are not static, however, nor are they mutually exclusive. Rather, a complex, mutually reinforcing relationship exists between these elements that change over time as teachers, their unions, and governments respond to each other in new and evolving ways. This results in discourses of teacher professionalism “from within” and “from without” that are more akin to two sides of the same coin than they are to the juxtaposed manner which they are often conceived of. In this way the study illustrates the power of teachers and their unions to alter the balance between democratic discourses which position teachers as advocates, agents, and policy actors; and neoliberal portrayals of teachers as the objects of educational reform.
Keywords: Discourse; Educational policy; Neoliberalism; Teacher professionalism; Teacher unions

Citizenship and Precarious Labour in Canadian Agriculture - Otero, Gerardo; Preibisch, Kerry (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office, 2015)
Based on interviews with 200 farmworkers, as well as representatives from industry, advocates and civil servants, this study finds that most BC farm workers are subject to hazardous conditions like unsafe transportation, substandard living conditions, long work hours and dangerous equipment. Employment standards for the agricultural sector are only loosely enforced.

Partial Histories: Constituting a Conflict between Women's Equality Rights and Indigenous Sovereignty in Canada - Painter, Genevieve (University of California, Berkeley, 2015)
This dissertation is a history of an idea, a retelling of a simple story about an idea as a complicated one, and an explanation of the effects of believing the simple story. From 1869 to 1985, to be an Indian in the eyes of the Canadian state—to be a “status Indian”—a person had to have a status Indian father. The Canadian government registered a population of Indigenous people as status Indians and decided that Indian status passed along the male line. If an Indian man married a non-Indian woman, his wife gained status and their children were status Indians. In contrast, if a status Indian woman married a non-Indian man, she lost her Indian status, and her children were not status Indians. This rule exiled women from their families of birth and tore them from the political fabric of their communities. The Indian status system is a keystone in Canada’s colonizing governance of Indigenous life. The rules in the Indian Act for the transmission of Indian status came under heavy criticism and, in 1985, the federal government amended the law. Because the 1985 amendments perpetuated sex discrimination by conferring an advantage to those who traced Indian status along the male line, the rules for Indian status were the object of decades of subsequent campaigning and litigation. In 2008 and 2015, landmark judgments in McIvor and Descheneaux declared the rules to be in breach of the gender equality guarantees in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In overturning the Indian Act’s status rules, the courts have relied on the government’s explanation of the history of these rules. The legislative history told by the government mirrors commonly held views about the history of the 1985 amendments to the Indian Act. According to this canonical history, the core explanation for the Indian Act amendments is a tension between individual rights to gender equality and collective rights to Indigenous self-governance, embodied in a conflict between Indigenous women and Indigenous communities (often represented by male Indigenous leaders). According to the canonical history, the opposition between these groups yielded an intractable political stalemate—a Gordian political knot that could only be sliced by the equality rights offered in constitutional and international human rights law. This dissertation unseats the canonical history by advancing an alternative account, one with both a wider aperture on the political and social context and a sharper focus on detail, complexity, and contingency. The dissertation asks how individual equality rights and Indigenous self-governance became juxtaposed to one another in a relationship of tension and dichotomous opposition and explains the discursive, political, and social forces that came together to create this idea of opposition. It situates the history of the Indian Act amendments in the context of negotiations for the re-founding of Canadian sovereignty and the passage of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Indigenous demands for recognition as a third order of government in Canada’s federal state, changing understandings of equality in Canadian law, and shifts in the categorization of the problem of Indian women’s loss of status as a political, social, or cultural problem. It traces the role of Indigenous political organizations, Indigenous women’s political organizations, and the white-led women’s movement in shaping the debate. It tracks how an issue transformed from a political problem into a question of fundamental rights. Debates about amending the Indian Act showed a consensus among Indigenous people about the importance of Indigenous self-governance and the need to end sex discrimination in the Indian Act. Conflict among Indigenous groups arose about the mechanisms for recognizing Indigenous self-governance and the definition of self-governing polities. Rather than a pitched battle among Indigenous people, the central threads running throughout the history of reforms to the Indian Act are the federal government’s steadfast refusal to recognize inherent Indigenous self-governance and a desire to limit government spending on status Indians, all in service of a project of constructing and defending Canadian sovereignty. The dissertation exposes the government’s share of responsibility in creating a conflict between gender equality rights and Indigenous self-governance. It reveals the law’s hand in shaping the discourses of rights through which this idea of tension became articulated, labeling those rights as fundamental, pitting those rights against one another as intrinsically opposed, and then balancing them in the name of justice and fairness. In contemporary litigation over the Indian Act, the Canadian government deploys a story about competing interests of Indigenous women and Indigenous communities as a justification for continued discrimination in the Indian Act. (Abridged abstract)
Keywords: Canada; Constitutional law; Human rights; Rhetoric; Settler colonialism; Social movements; Social sciences

A Tate Gallery for the New Left: Portraits, Landscapes, and Abstracts in the Revolutionary Activism of the 1950s and 1960s - Palmer, Bryan D. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews and comments on "Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s and 60s: A Memoir," volumes 1 and 2, by Ernest Tate.

Employers’ Anti-Unionism in Niagara, 1942–1965: Questioning the Postwar Compromise - Patrias, Carmela (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This study explores employers ’ anti-union strategies in the Niagara Peninsula from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s in order to enhance our understanding of the nature of relations between labour and capital during the period generally described as that of the postwar compromise. Relying on such unexplored archival collections as the papers of the St. Catharines firm, Ontario Editorial Bureau, as well as the collections of the Archives of Ontario and Library and Archives Canada, the study focuses on four main union-avoidance strategies: the establishment of company-dominated unions, anti-union public relations campaigns, corporate welfarism, and company relocation. By illustrating the depth and endurance of Niagara employers’ opposition to unions during the period of supposed compromise between employers, workers and the state the study demonstrates that there was greater continuity than we have supposed between management views of workers’ rights during the period of the postwar compromise and the neoliberalism that characterized subsequent decades.

Race-based Discrimination in Bomb Girls - Patrias, Carmela (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Documents how discrimination against minorities during WWII was much more prevalent than the selective portrayal in the television series, "Bomb Girls."

Bunkhouse Drama: An Examination of Control and Agency among Migrant Farm Workers in Ontario, Canada - Perry, Joseph Adam (University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 2015)
This thesis examines workers' experiences of control and agency at the micro-political level of the dormitory/workplace in the context of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). I ask: 1) How are individual migrant workers responding to workplace and (im)migration policies and practices that aim to produce a flexible and compliant workforce; and 2) what forms of creative research strategies are best suited to documenting and examining the private, largely hidden lives of migrant farm workers? The thesis sheds light on the daily forms of resilience, opposition and survival among an entrenched, yet largely hidden workforce on the margins of Canada's labour market. I conducted my fieldwork in the town of Leamington, Ontario, a well-established hub of Canada's greenhouse industry, and as such a significant terminus for SAWP workers. In order to fully engage workers in the research process, I incorporated a qualitative, embodied, active and participatory approach to research grounded in life history, personal narrative, and drama-based methods. Through my interactions with workers I explore in detail how colonial attitudes operate alongside Canada's official policy of multiculturalism in the context of migration and employment among `low-skilled' guest workers. Throughout the thesis I examine workers' stories through the conceptual lenses of worker agency, workplace relations and worker emancipation. My research reveals that in tightly controlled and surveilled workplace environments workers learn to be intensely competitive and to distrust each other as a means of survival, resulting in a deep sense of isolation among workers, thus stifling potential opportunities for building group solidarity. However, I found that workers' participation in non-work related activities during leisure hours produced small breaches in the accepted norms of control, offering potentially rich opportunities for critical reflection and dialogue. I argue that an analysis of complex and even contradictory worker subjectivities that are developed and performed in everyday life among Canada's SAWP workers offers a more nuanced understanding of worker solidarities, collective social movements and the potential for labour education at the margins of Canada's labour market.

What Unions No Longer Do - Peters, John (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "What Unions No Longer Do," by Jake Rosenfeld.

The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left - Phillips, Lisa (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left," by Landon R.Y. Storrs.

Pilotage par la performance au quotidien dans une administration publique: conséquences sur les conditions de vie au travail des cadres de proximité et des agents encadrés - Piney, Cécile; Nascimento, Adelaide; Gaudart, Corinne (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Une grande administration publique a souhaité comprendre l’incidence de son pilotage par la performance sur les conditions de vie au travail, notamment grâce à l’utilisation d’indicateurs. D’après la littérature, il n’existe pas une forme de performance, mais différentes performances dont les critères d’évaluation sont sélectionnés en fonction de la stratégie adoptée par l’organisation. L’application du pilotage par la performance dépend du choix des outils de mesure. Entre direction et agents, les cadres de proximité traduisent les objectifs de performance en missions concrètes. La façon de piloter les services pour atteindre les objectifs a des impacts sur la qualité du service produit, sur la qualité de vie au travail et le ressenti des conditions de travail. Une étude qualitative à partir de 36 entretiens centrés sur l’activité a été menée auprès d’agents, de cadres de proximité dans différents types de service, et de cadres intermédiaires. Ces résultats ont ensuite été croisés aux débats dans des groupes de travail «Métiers» et «Management-local». Les personnes interrogées ne remettent pas en cause l’utilisation d’indicateurs pour mesurer l’activité. Une culture du chiffre oriente même l’activité en priorisant certaines tâches au détriment d’un travail gris non mesuré. Néanmoins, il n’existe pas de perception commune de la performance au sein de cette administration, ce qui implique différents usages d’indicateurs. La recherche de la performance par l’administration via un pilotage par indicateurs a entraîné des phénomènes d’intensification du travail et d’évolution des métiers. Des pratiques induites afin de s’adapter aux conditions de travail se sont développées, celles-ci sont à la source d’écarts entre performance mesurée par les indicateurs et performance réelle des services. Ces stratégies de contournement sont un facteur dégradant les conditions de vie au travail, avec notamment un sentiment de non qualité du service rendu à l’usager et une perte de sens du métier. Les cadres de proximité, responsables de service, concilient tous ces paramètres afin de faire en sorte que les équipes puissent effectuer leur travail dans les meilleures conditions possibles.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Flexible Work Arrangements and Co-Worker Perceptions: The Relationship Between Values, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment - Pitek, Joanna Marie (University of Toronto, 2015)
This dissertation explored the relationship between individual-level value differences and workplace attitudes. Using data from a sample of Canadian workers whose co-workers were currently using flexible work arrangements, the relationship between allocentrism and workers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment was explored. A workplace-allocentrism scale was developed and validated. The scale showed adequate validity and reliability and thus was used in the main study. The Co-Worker Model was developed and tested on a sample of adults in Canada who work in organizations where flexible work arrangements are used. Data were collected from an online research panel and then tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that allocentric value orientations were positively related to reported organizational commitment, mediated by job satisfaction. This study sheds light on the importance of understanding individual-level value differences when examining the effectiveness and/or ineffectiveness of organizational policies and practices.

Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal - Poutanen, Mary Anne (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015)
During a time of significant demographic, geographic, and social transition, many women in early nineteenth-century Montreal turned to prostitution and brothel-keeping to feed, clothe, protect, and house themselves and their families. Beyond Brutal Passions is a close study of the women who were accused of marketing sex, their economic and social susceptibilities, and the strategies they employed to resist authority and assert their own agency. Referencing newspapers, parish registers, census returns, coroners' reports, city directories, documents of Catholic and Protestant institutions, police books, and court records, Mary Anne Poutanen reveals how these women confronted limited alternatives and how they fought against established authority in the pursuit of their livelihoods. She details these women's lives not only as prostitutes but also as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters who reconstructed the bonds of kinship and solidarity. An insightful history of prostitution, Beyond Brutal Passions explores the complicated relationships between women accused of prostitution and the society in which they lived and worked. A social history exploring the intersections between those accused of prostitution, their neighbours, families, clients, and criminal justice. –Publisher's summary (WorldCat record)
OCLC: 1032579311

The Search for a Socialist El Dorado: Finnish Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the United States and Canada in the 1930s - Pratt, William C. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "The Search for a Socialist El Dorado: Finnish Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the United States and Canada in the 1930s," by Alexey Golubev and Irina Takala.

Playful Crowds and the 1886 Toronto Street Railway Strikes - Radforth, Ian (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Two linked Toronto strikes of street railway employees in 1886 are used to explore contrasting patterns of behaviour or “contentious performances” in Victorian city streets. Strikers led by the Knights of Labor exercised self-discipline when picketing so as to gain the support of the community and defeat the ironclad contract imposed by their anti-union employer. At a moment of working-class mobilization amid industrialization, these employees of a modern, mass-transportation firm deployed “emergent” union tactics. Positioning themselves as breadwinners and as citizens asserting their right to join a union, they deployed a choreographed masculinity encouraged by Knights leaders who strategized to win the disputes. By contrast, large crowds composed overwhelmingly of working-class men and boys demonstrated their disapproval of the street railway company and its anti-labour policy in unruly actions detailed in lively press accounts. The crowds’ transgressive actions point to a “residual” pattern of protest and spontaneous expressions of masculinity derived from boyhoods spent in the streets. Moreover, at times these crowds engaged in playful behaviour and brought into the streets more people drawn by the fun, thus adding momentum to the strikers’ campaign and helping to prompt the repressive measures taken by law enforcement.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames - Ramsay, Ellen (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "An American in London: Whistler and the Thames," by Margaret F. MacDonald and Patricia de Montfort.

Examining the Delineation of Jurisdiction Between Human Rights and Labour Arbitration After Figliola and Penner - Regan, Anne Elizabeth (University of Toronto, 2015)
There has been a long-time debate over whether issues conclusively decided at labour arbitration should be subject to a subsequent proceeding before a human rights tribunal. The author examines Supreme Court of Canada decisions dealing with re-litigation of issues before multiple decision-makers, and demonstrates how they are interpreted by the human rights tribunal. This paper identifies principles from cases before other decision-makers that can be applied to the problem of shared jurisdiction between labour arbitration and human rights.

Cleaning Up: How Hospital Outsourcing is Hurting Workers and Endangering Patients - Reich, Adam (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Cleaning Up: How Hospital Outsourcing is Hurting Workers and Endangering Patients," by Dan Zuberi.

Cracked: How Telephone Operators Took on Canada's Largest Corporation ... And Won! - Roberts, Joan M. (Dundurn, 2015)
The story of the Bell Canada union drive and the phone operator strike that brought sweeping reform to women’s workplace rights. In the 1970s, Bell Canada was Canada’s largest corporation. It employed thousands of people, including a large number of women who worked as operators and endured very poor pay and working conditions. Joan Roberts, a former operator, tells the story of how she and a group of dedicated labour organizers helped to initiate a campaign to unionize Bell Canada’s operators. From the point of view of the workers and the organizers, Roberts tells an important story in Canada’s labour history. The unionization of Bell Canada’s operators was a huge victory for Canada’s working women. The victory at Bell established new standards for women in other so-called “pink-collar” jobs. –Publisher's description

Continental Crucible: Big Business, Workers and Unions in the Transformation of North America - Roman, Richard; Velasco Arregui, Edur (Fernwood, 2015)
The crucible of North American neo-liberal transformation is heating up, but its outcome is far from clear. [This book] examines the clash between the corporate offensive and the forces of resistance from both a pan-continental and a class struggle perspective. This book also illustrates the ways in which the capitalist classes in Canada, Mexico and the United States used free trade agreements to consolidate their agendas and organize themselves continentally. The failure of traditional labour responses to stop the continental offensive being waged by big business has led workers and unions to explore new strategies of struggle and organization, pointing to the beginnings of a continental labour movement across North America. The battle for the future of North America has begun. –Publisher's description
Keywords: Commerce; Corporate power; Economic aspects; Free trade; Labor Unions; Labor movement; Social conditions; Working class

Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress - Rosenfeld, Herman (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress," by Steve Early.

Building a Better World: An Introduction to the Labour Movement in Canada - Ross, Stephanie; Savage, Larry; Silver, Jim; Black, Errol (Fernwood Books, 2015)
Substantially revised and updated for a new generation of labour studies students, this third edition of Building a Better World offers a comprehensive introductory overview of Canada's labour movement. The book includes an analysis of why workers form unions; assesses their organization and democratic potential; examines issues related to collective bargaining, grievances and strike activity; charts the historical development of labour unions; and describes the gains unions have achieved for their members and all working people. – Publisher's description. Contents: What is a union? (pages 1-5) – Understanding unions (pages 6-18) – Early union struggles in Canada (pages 19-45) – From Keynesianism to neoliberalism: Union breakthroughs and challenges (pages 46-70) – Unions in the workplace (pages 71-91) – Unions and political action (pages 92-111) – How do unions work? (pages 112-137) – What difference do unions make? (pages 128-143) – Who belongs to unions? Who doesn't and why? (pages 144-163) – The future of unions: Decline or renewal? (pages 164-189) – References (pages 190-204) - Index (pages 206-216).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282648791_Building_a_Better_World_An_Introduction_to_the_Labour_Movement_in_Canada

The Casualization of Work and the Rise of Precariousness in Sudbury’s Nickel Mining Industry - Roth, Reuben; Steedman, Mercedes; Condratto, Shelley (Market-Driven Regimes, 2015)
This paper examines the specific circumstances of contract employment within Sudbury Canada’s mining industry. We attribute this degradation to a shift from direct employment with a major mining company to a concomitant erosion of collective bargaining language and a precarious contract-based relationship. We contend that subcontracting the hiring of employees to a third party skirts provisions of both Federal and Provincial labour legislation which governs and limits the employer’s power (in the case of Ontario this includes the ‘closed shop’ provisions in the Rand Formula, discussed in detail below), and denies fair union representation to what would otherwise be an organized cadre of mining employees, duly employed by the primary employer of record. –From introduction

Salaires et productivité du travail au Canada depuis le début du 20 siècle : les travailleurs bénéficient-ils de la croissance économique? - Rouillard, Jacques; Rouillard, Jean-François (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Notre article évalue la croissance des salaires réels des travailleurs au Canada du début du 20e siècle jusqu’à 2013, en considérant à la fois les salaires des travailleurs syndiqués et non syndiqués. Cette évolution est mise en relation avec la hausse de la productivité du travail afin de vérifier la théorie de l’économiste Robert Solow voulant que la croissance des salaires réels progresse au même rythme que la productivité du travail. Nous relevons l’évolution des salaires en trois temps selon les modes dominants de régulation des relations de travail : 1900-1939, 1940-1979 et 1980-2013. La première phase, celle du libéralisme, est marquée par la négociation individuelle des conditions de travail et l’amorce de la syndicalisation. La deuxième se situe dans la mouvance keynésienne et est caractérisée par le militantisme syndical et l’aide de l’État. La troisième, qui s’inscrit dans l’affirmation du néolibéralisme, voit le recul du syndicalisme et de l’appui apporté par les gouvernements. De notre analyse, il ressort que trois importants facteurs influencent la détermination des salaires : 1-la croissance économique ; 2-l’action de l’État ; et 3- le militantisme syndical. Notre recherche montre que les salaires réels moyens des travailleurs au Canada n’ont guère augmenté au-delà de l’inflation depuis les trois dernières décennies malgré un accroissement de la productivité du travail. Ce quasi-gel du pouvoir d’achat des travailleurs est notamment attribuable à des transformations du marché du travail, à l’érosion du rapport de force des salariés dans les entreprises et aux valeurs néolibérales qui s’imposent auprès des gouvernements. En revanche, les années antérieures se présentent sous un tout autre jour puisque les salariés profitent de la croissance économique et de la hausse de la productivité du travail. Depuis la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, leur pouvoir d’achat fait plus que doubler, en même temps qu’ils peuvent bénéficier d’une réduction de leurs heures de travail et de nombreux autres avantages sociaux. Cet avancement est le résultat de la forte croissance économique, de la hausse du taux de syndicalisation et de politiques gouvernementales keynésiennes axées sur la stimulation de la consommation. De 1901 à 1940, les salariés profitèrent également du développement industriel, même si les rapports qui déterminent l’embauche et les conditions de travail sont surtout de nature individuelle basés sur les lois du marché. Au cours de cette période, l’action de l’État demeure marginale, mais des syndicats réussissent à imposer la négociation collective.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Housework and Social Subversion: Wages, Housework, and Feminist Activism in 1970s Italy and Canada - Rousseau, Christina Adelina (York University, 2015)
My dissertation, Housework and Social Subversion: Wages, Housework, and Feminist Activism in 1970s Italy and Canada, presents a history of the Wages for Housework movements in Italy and Canada (1972-1978), looking at the parallel development of autonomist feminist politics in these locations. Based on a series of interviews with feminists involved in the movement, my dissertation highlights the significant political value in the way the groups theoretical perspective influenced our current understanding of social reproduction. Social reproduction refers to the unpaid activities associated with family and societal maintenance procreation, socialization, and nurturance as well as paid work in social sectors such as health care, education, childcare, and social services. In the context of Wages for Housework, my dissertation re-examines the movements understandings of wages, housework, and the gendered relations of production in the home. In critiquing the capitalist, patriarchal, imperialist nuclear family, they re-conceptualized wages and housework in a way that allowed for the uncovering of the most hidden aspect of housework: emotional labour and care. Looking at the parallel development of Wages for Housework movements in Italy and Canada, I also highlight the emergence of similar tensions regarding the demand for wages and the role of the working class housewife in their analyses. As Nicole Cox and Silvia Federici wrote, Our power as women begins with the social struggle for the wage, not to be let into the wage relation (for we were never out of it) but to be le out of it, for every sector of the working class to be left out of it (1975, 11). In light of the continued pervasiveness of care as work, this dissertation contributes to building a better understanding of social reproduction in a global context.

Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail - Sager, Eric W. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail," by Marcus Rediker.

Bomb Girls, Gender, and Working-Class History - Sangster, Joan (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Provides a critical appreciation of the television series, "Bomb Girls," as a pedagogical tool and as Canadian historical fiction in the context of the US-dominated culture industry. Concludes that while the series is limited in its understanding of class relations, it nonetheless is of value for students to consider the relationship between mass media, representation, and working women.

Job Developers in Transition: A Study of Informal and Nonformal Job Skills Training of Job Developers in Nonprofit Organizations in Ontario - Savia, Roy Della (University of Toronto, 2015)
Job Developers have complex and demanding jobs that require balancing the needs of organizations, employers, and job seekers. Job Developers must meet new employers and potential employees every day, earn their trust, and learn their needs. A common role Job Developers play is helping people find jobs and helping employers find employees. Job Developers attempt to learn what employers and job seekers need and what each can offer to match the right applicants to the right employers.Competent Job Developers must have organization, research, marketing, selling, communication, and negotiation skills. Job development has become a high growth occupation. Because the nature of their jobs changes constantly, Job Developers must also stays updated on employment trends and labor market information. While these changes provide opportunities for practitioners to expand their roles, they also impose increased demands and challenges to build their skills and capacity to perform their jobs. The job developer profession (also known as employment specialist) is a recently new concept in the nonprofit sector. Job Developers' potential as advocates for the unemployed, those with disabilities, and new immigrants is fundamental in today's competitive job market and in the context of equitable opportunity for employment. Informal and nonformal learning are well-recognized and well-used in the job development field. Job Developers rely on informal and nonformal learning for professional development and occupational autonomy.

“Métis”: Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood - Sawchuk, Joe (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "'Métis': Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood," by Chris Andersen.

People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed? - Schmidle, Timothy P. (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed?," by Lisa Schur, Douglas Kruse and Peter Blanck.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Academic Freedom in Conflict: The Struggle Over Free Speech Rights in the University - Schrecker, Ellen (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Academic Freedom in Conflict: The Struggle Over Free Speech Rights in the University," edited by James L. Turk.

Self-Employment and Retirement in Canada: The Labour Force Dynamics of Older Workers - Schuetze, Herbert J. (Canadian Public Policy, 2015)
Using panel data from the Surveys of Labour and Income Dynamics covering the period 1993 to 2008 in Canada this study examines labour force transitions among older workers. High rates of self-employment among older workers primarily result from greater labour market continuation among the self-employed compared to paid employees. Older self-employed men across all characteristics examined are more likely to continue working at each age, while self-employed women do not respond to age-related factors (such as the pension system) to the same extent as paid employees. Labour market continuation is found to be higher among late-life entrants to self-employment than among paid employees after accounting for individual characteristics and job tenure.

Remembering the Civil Service: Work and Life Stories of Indigenous Labourers in the Canadian Federal Civil Service - Seguin, Alisha (Carleton University, 2015)
This thesis examines the life stories of six Indigenous civil servants who worked in the Canadian federal public service from the late 1960s until today. To contextualize these lived experiences, this thesis also explores the development of a culture of merit, representation, and employment equity within the federal civil service in the twentieth century. Stories of work were provided within the frame of larger life stories, allowing narrators to speak to both their perceptions of the civil service as an employer and also the role and meaning of this work within their lives. As a result, this thesis argues that the complexity of individual experiences, identity formation, and memory make it difficult to generalize about “the Indigenous civil servant” in any meaningful way. Relatedly, this thesis also emphasizes both the enriching possibilities and the unique challenges of conducting life story oral interviews and “sharing authority” in collaborative research projects.

Delaying, Disarming, and Deceiving the Union: The Lougheed Government, Alberta Government Employees, and the Public Service Employee Relations Act, 1977 - Selby, Jim (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Increasing discontent among provincial employees in Alberta in the late 1960s and 1970s led to growing militancy culminating in a series of strike actions in 1974 by members of the Civil Service Association of Alberta (csa of a) and the transformation of that organization into the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. In response to growing labour unrest in the public sector, the Lougheed government created a joint government/union task force with the csa of a on 11 February 1975 to review the legislation governing provincial employees and to recommend changes in legislation necessary to achieve a better system of labour relations. The creation of the task force created a period of labour peace in the provincial public sector leading up to the provincial election in the spring of 1975. However, following the re-election of the Lougheed government, public sector labour legislation was revised with the passage of the highly anti-union Public Service Employee Relations Act in May 1977. Internal government documents of the day suggest the task force process was a cynical manipulation of the union in an effort to defuse public employee militancy and to delay conflict.

Enforcing Workplace Pension Rights for Unionized Employees: Is There a Weber Gap Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Shilton, Elizabeth (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
In the Weber case, the Supreme Court of Canada enlarged the scope of jurisdiction of labour arbitrators by holding that they have exclusive jurisdiction over all disputes arising not only expressly, but also "inferentially," from a collective agreement. Unfortunately, the expanded jurisdiction conferred on arbitrators was not accompanied by any direction as to where they should look for the normative standards necessary to adjudicate claims where those stan- dards are not provided by the collective agreement, creating the potential for what scholar and arbitrator Brian Etherington has called a Weber gap. There is the potential for such a Weber gap in relation to workplace pension issues, which have traditionally been dealt with by the courts. In Bisaillon v. Concordia University, the Supreme Court of Canada applied a liberal version of the Weber test to a pension dispute, holding that it belonged within the exclusive jurisdic- tion of an arbitrator. Courts and arbitrators have had starkly different responses to this decision: courts have embraced the Court's liberal approach and refused jurisdiction over many pension claims they would previously have dealt with, while arbitrators have taken a narrower view and have been hesitant to expand their own jurisdiction. This divergence has led in practice to an enforcement gap that may leave some unionized employees without access to an effective forum in which to vindicate pension rights. The author proposes that this problem could be addressed through a liberalization of arbitral practice, through collective bargaining, or through legislative reform.

Collective Bargaining - Slinn, Sara (Ontario Ministry of Labour, Changing Workplaces Review, 2015)
This research project reviews and evaluates the academic literature relating to obtaining and maintaining collective bargaining rights under the OLRA. Research indicates that procedural changes to representation processes including the mandatory representation vote significantly reduced the likelihood of certification, and that these effects were concentrated in more vulnerable units. This may partly be due to greater opportunity for delay and employer resistance under vote procedure compared to under card-based certification. The research also indicates that delay has significant effects on certification outcomes, as do ULP complaints and employer resistance tactics. ULPs have negative long-term effects, and are associated with difficulties in bargaining and early decertification. Research also suggests that employer resistance, including ULPs, is common and often intentional. Little research on decertification exists, but offers some indication that employer actions contribute to decertification, and that decertification is concentrated in smaller, low-skill, low bargaining power units.

The Worker and the War Machine - Smith, Autumn Danielle MacKenzie (York University, 2015)
This paper aims to discover the theatrical relationship between the working class and the factory of war. In that, it strives to prove that the lower income labourer is the cog of the machine: a nameless entity with an inescapable destiny. Through the paper and the subsequent production of Oh, What A Lovely War! I intend to give a voice to the worker and will struggle with my own blue collar identity, just as Joan Littlewood did in years past. This production and paper therefore is one of self-discovery and acceptance. In addition, it aims to prove that without the heroic efforts of the laboring class, there would be no war, as the cowardice of capitalism would fall without its soldiers.
Keywords: Directing; Factory; Games; In-Yer-Face; Joan Littlewood; Labourer; London; Machines; Pierrot; Theatre; Theatre Workshop; Working Class; World War I

24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep - Spike, Sara (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep," by Jonathan Crary.

A Community in Conflict: The Crowsnest Pass' 1932 Coal Strike - Stace, Trevor I. E. (University of Alberta, 2015)
In 1932, coal miners inside of Alberta's Crowsnest Pass struck for 195 days over working conditions. I use a multi-perspective approach and found my analysis on the basis of community to increase our understanding on industrial disputes. I explore the strike from the viewpoint of coal operators, miners, union organizers, women, the RCMP, and other residents inside the region to contextualize the experience of the strike. By using the starting point of community, I add to the ‘labour versus capital’ paradigm often employed in writings on industrial disputes. The Mine Workers Union of Canada represented the striking miners but it became clear that community consensus to support for the union was never reached. Resistance against the union formed on several fronts and often pitted strike supporters against those who disagreed. The strike is a reminder that tensions not only existed between classes but also within classes.

Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism - Stanford, Jim; Biddle, Tony (Fernwood Books, 2015)
This concise and readable book provides non-specialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t). Economics for Everyone, now in its second edition, is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wages are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. –Publisher's description
https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/economics-for-everyone1
Keywords: Capitalism; Economics; Working class

Changing Times, Changing Benefits Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Steele, Jana (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
This paper explores some of the complex legal issues that a pension plan sponsor may face when making changes to plan design, particularly where those changes may have a negative impact on benefits. Pension standards legislation in Canada generally permits prospective amendments to a pension plan, pro- vided they do not affect vested rights. However, as the author explains, deter- mining the nature and extent of permissible changes may be complicated by differences in the language of the applicable legislation, which varies across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the key terms "accrued" and "vested" have not been interpreted in a consistent way by courts and tribunals. Turning specifically to the question of which pension benefits can be changed and which ones cannot, the author argues that pension standards law protects only accrued benefits, and not a particular plan design or all "rights" which might be said to arise from plan membership. The paper goes on to review the limited circumstances in which changes can be made to vested pension benefits.

Working in the Shadows for Transparency: Russ Hiebert, LabourWatch, Nanos Research, and the Making of Bill C-377 - Stevens, Andrew; Tucker, Sean (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Examines the controversy surrounding the passage of Bill C-377 by the Canadian federal parliament in 2012. Introduced as a private member's bill by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert in 2011, the legislation required unions to disclose publicly all of their activities to the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act. The paper analyzes the anti-labour origins of the bill, which mirrored the union disclosure provisions of the US Taft-Hartley Act; it also considers the role of LabourWatch, the bill's principal private-sector Canadian advocate, as well as the Nanos Research polls commissioned by LabourWatch that appeared to show wide public support for the bill.

A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today - Taylor, Kerry (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today," by Paul Le Blanc and Michael D. Yates.

Redeeming Time: Protestantism and Chicago’s Eight-Hour Movement, 1866-1912 - Thiessen, Janis Lee (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Redeeming Time: Protestantism and Chicago’s Eight-Hour Movement, 1866-1912," by William A. Mirola.

Pension Benefits and Wrongful Dismissal Damages: Double Recovery or Double Jeopardy Workplace Pensions: Next Generation or Final Frontier - Thornicroft, Kenneth Wm. (Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 2015)
In the Waterman case, the Supreme Court of Canada decided - at least with respect to the defined benefit pension plan under review - that pension benefits received by a wrongfully dismissed employee during the reasonable notice period are not deductible from any severance pay in lieu of reasonable notice that is otherwise payable. A majority of the Court held that the pen- sion benefits constituted a form of deferred compensation that was not intended to indemnify against income loss due to a wrongful dismissal, while the min- ority maintained that pension benefits received during the notice period must be deducted to prevent the dismissed employee from obtaining an undeserved windfall. In this article, the author reviews the law relating to the deductibility of various benefit payments from wrongful dismissal damages. In his view, the Waterman majority judgment does not provide wrongfully dismissed employees with an improper windfall, and there is no principled reason why pension bene- fits should be deducted from a damages award and thereby placed on a separate footing from other benefits that are components of an employee's overall com- pensation package.

Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights and Ojibwe Nationhood - Tough, Frank J. (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights and Ojibwe Nationhood," by Chantal Norrgard.

D'où vient l'emploi ? Marché, État et action collective - Tremblay, Diane-Gabrielle (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "D'où vient l'emploi ? Marché, État et action collective" by Frédéric Hanin.
Keywords: D'OU vient l'emploi? Marche; Etat et action collective (Book); HANIN; Frederic; Industrial relations; LABOR market; Nonfiction

Hommage à Pierre Verge (1936-2015) = Tribute to Pierre Verge (1936-2015) - Vallée, Guylaine (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Avec le décès de Pierre Verge, la revue Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations perd un réputé contributeur et un précieux ami. À la demande de la direction de la revue, la professeure Guylaine Vallée, qui connaît bien l’oeuvre de Pierre Verge et qui a travaillé avec lui, a accepté de rédiger ce texte hommage faisant état de sa contribution à l’avancement du droit de travail et des relations industrielles au Québec et au Canada. // An obituary is presented for Pierre Verge, a contributor to this journal, professor emeritus at the Law Faculty at the University of Laval in Québec, Québec, humanist, author, and advocate for the advancement of labor laws and industrial relations in Québec and Canada.
Keywords: LAW teachers – Canada; VERGE; Pierre

Le rôle des interactions entre engagements multiples dans la prédiction du risque de démission - Vandenberghe, Christian (Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Cette étude examine l’influence d’engagements multiples envers l’organisation et le groupe de travail dans la prédiction des départs volontaires, en considérant les interactions entre les deux cibles et les effets principaux des dimensions d’engagement. Ce faisant, la présente étude innove en poursuivant une ligne de recherche émergente sur la façon dont des engagements multiples envers des cibles de travail emboitées s’articulent dans leur influence sur l’occurrence des départs volontaires. De plus, notre attention se porte particulièrement sur les interactions entre l’engagement organisationnel normatif et les dimensions d’engagement envers le groupe. En effet, des travaux récents suggèrent que l’engagement normatif peut voir sa signification perçue se modifier suivant le contexte intra-personnel créé par les autres dimensions d’engagement (Gellatly, Meyer et Luchak, 2006 ; Meyer, Stanley et Parfyonova, 2012). Nous explorons donc l’idée que l’engagement organisationnel normatif pourrait avoir des effets différents sur le risque de démission suivant qu’il s’accompagne d’un engagement affectif, normatif ou de continuité élevé envers le groupe. Sur la base d’une étude en deux temps de mesure espacés d’un an ( N = 268), les analyses révèlent que l’engagement organisationnel normatif présente un effet de réduction du risque de démission plus important lorsque l’engagement affectif envers le groupe est élevé, mais un effet de réduction du risque de démission plus faible lorsque l’engagement normatif envers le groupe est élevé, indiquant des interactions opposées entre les cibles d’engagement. De plus, l’engagement par manque d’alternatives est lié à un risque réduit de démission, cela seulement lorsque l’engagement de continuité envers le groupe est élevé. Enfin, l’engagement organisationnel affectif et l’engagement organisationnel par sacrifice perçu sont associés à un risque réduit de démission alors que l’engagement de continuité envers le groupe de travail augmente ce risque. Nous discutons la portée de ces résultats pour la compréhension du rôle des engagements multiples dans la rétention des employés. // English title: Well-being at Work: Contributions of a Person-centred Study. (English). This study examines the influence of multiple commitments toward the organization and the workgroup in predicting voluntary turnover by considering the interactions across foci and the main effects of commitment dimensions. In doing so, the present study innovates by pursuing an emerging line of research on how multiple commitments toward nested work foci combine each other in influencing the likelihood of voluntary leaving. In addition, we particularly focus on the interactions between normative organizational commitment and the dimensions of commitment to the workgroup. Indeed, recent studies suggest that normative commitment’s perceived meaning can change depending on the intra-personal context provided by the other commitments (Gellatly, Meyer, and Luchak, 2006 ; Meyer, Stanley, and Parfyonova, 2012). We thus explore the idea that normative organizational commitment may have different effects on the likelihood of leaving depending on whether it is accompanied by high affective, normative, or continuance commitment to the workgroup. Based on a study involving two measurement times spaced by one year (N = 268), analyses indicate that normative organizational commitment displays a stronger negative effect on turnover at high levels of affective commitment to the workgroup but a weaker effect on turnover at high levels of normative commitment to the workgroup, indicating opposite interactions across foci. In addition, lack of alternatives commitment is related to reduced turnover only when continuance commitment to the workgroup is high. Finally, affective organizational commitment and perceived sacrifice organizational commitment are associated with lower turnover while continuance commitment to the workgroup is related to higher turnover. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the role of multiple commitments in employee retention.
Keywords: EMPLOYEE attitude surveys; EMPLOYMENT tenure; LABOR turnover; ORGANIZATIONAL commitment; TEAMS in the workplace; and lack of alternatives); commitment to the workgroup; départs volontaires; employee retention; engagement envers le groupe; engagement organisationnel (affectif; implicación con el grupo; implicación organizacional (afectiva; industrial relations research; normatif; normativa; normative; organizational commitment (affective; par sacrifice perçu et manque d'alternatives); perceived sacrifice; por sacrificio percibido y por falta de alternativas); renuncia voluntaria; voluntary turnover

Remembering "Salt:" How a Blacklisted Hollywood Movie Brought the Spectre of McCarthyism to a Small Canadian Town - Verzuh, Ron (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
Discusses the turbulent history surrounding the screening of the film, "Salt of the Earth," by Local 480 of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers' union in Trail, BC, in 1954. The Hollywood film, which is based on a true story of Chicano workers on strike at a mine in New Mexico, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, as were many of the production's personnel. The paper is framed by the reminiscence of Anita Torres, who participated in the original 15-month-long strike, and who attended the screenings both in 1954 and in 2014 when it was commemorated.
Issue 76, Fall 2015

Standing up, Fighting Back: Fostering Collective Action in CUPE New Brunswick, 1963-1993 - Vinh-Doyle, William (University of New Brunswick, 2015)
The emergence of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in the 1970s as the largest union in Canada was a major development in Canadian labour history and the result of extensive efforts to organize unorganized civil servants and public employees. Public sector union growth has often been thought to have differed fundamentally from the experience of private sector unions, on the grounds that union rights were extended to public sector workers without struggle. The history of CUPE New Brunswick, established in 1963, and its predecessor unions in the 1950s demonstrates the complex struggles of civil servants and public employees to acquire and then to apply collective bargaining rights in the province of New Brunswick. While the enactment of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) in 1968 provided a legal means for civil servants to join a union and bargain collectively, public sector workers continued to struggle for improved wages and working conditions throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These conflicts, which drew on both membership mobilization and legal strategies, are shown in detail in the experience of CUPE members in Local 963, New Brunswick Liquor Store Workers, and Local 1252, New Brunswick Council of Hospital Unions, the umbrella organization representing hospital support workers. While locals within CUPE New Brunswick worked independently of one another, the more than 200 CUPE locals in the province joined together in 1992 to resist measures introduced by the provincial Liberal government. While this was essentially a defensive struggle to protect existing rights, it also represented a challenge to the emerging policies of neo-liberalism and a culmination of a tradition of collective action within the union.

Adjustments to Minimum Wages in China: Cost-Neutral Offsets - Wang, Jing; Gunderson, Morley (Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, 2015)
Based on qualitative interviews of workers, managers and labour inspectors in China, we examine how employers adjust, often in subtle fashions, to minimum wage increases. Our findings highlight the “law of unintended consequences” in that their effects are often “undone” or offset by subtle adjustments such as reductions in fringe benefits and in overtime work and overtime pay premiums that are otherwise valued by employees. Employees often feel that they are no better off in spite of minimum wage increases because of these offsetting adjustments. This study also suggests possible reasons for the small or zero effect of minimum wage on employment in China. Lack of enforcement may be one of the reasons, but the employees we interviewed seem well aware of the legal minimum wage and employers do not want to get involved in disputes over this matter. For employers who would otherwise be affected by the minimum wage increase, the cost increase is mitigated by the offsetting adjustments. As a result, minimum wages do not seem to weaken the competitive position of employers in China.
Keywords: SnR_publicationTitle_Relations industrielles_Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations_2025-09-22T15:31:55.974Z

Ain’t Got No Home: America’s Great Migrations and the Making of An Interracial Left - Washington, Mary Helen (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
This article reviews the book, "Ain’t Got No Home: America’s Great Migrations and the Making of An Interracial Left," by Erin Royston Battat.

Locked Out: A Century of Irish Working-Class Life - Whelehan, Niall (Labour / Le Travail, 2015)
The article reviews the book, "Locked Out: A Century of Irish Working-Class Life," edited by David Convery.

Solitudes of the Workplace: Women in Universities - Whittaker, Elvi (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015)
Solitudes of the Workplace focuses on experiences of marginalization, uncertainty and segregation created by the hierarchical structures of categories in universities and by gendered identities. Studying a wider range of women’s roles in universities than prior research, the experiences of support staff, senior administrators, researchers, non-academic administrators, and contract teachers are added to those of faculty and students. The essays show how attempts to introduce new knowledge are manoeuvered and the resistance this process can encounter, as well as the ways in which institutional policies can blur and change identities. Addressing longstanding issues such as the entanglement of gender and the assessment of merit, attention is also given to how new identities are claimed and successfully projected. Essays presenting workers' points of view reveal the confusion that occurs when official policy and everyday knowledge conflict, when processes like tenure and other status changes create troublesome realities, and when it becomes routine to experience status denigration. Within the social order of the university and its existing boundaries, gender issues of past decades sometimes surface, but all too often remain an unspoken presence. Solitudes of the Workplace is a revealing look at the isolating experiences and inequities inherent in these institutional environments. –Publisher's description.
Book available at Internet Archive to people with print disabilities: https://archive.org/details/solitudesofworkp0000unse OCLC: 981579876